Customer Reviews

Empire

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

It would be easy to castigate "Empire," the eight-part minis-series aired on ABC this summer, by looking at how little it has to do with the actual period of Roman history beginning with the assassination of Julius Caesar and ending with the crowning of his nephew Octavius as Augustus, the first Roman emperor. However, it is not like people are really familiar with Roman history or can be motivated to care about such trivial facts from the past. Furthermore, it is clear the producers of "Empire" want you to be thinking more of "Gladiator" than "I Claudius," and want to beat HBO's "Rome" to the punch as well. That is why I have decided to take a different line of attack and chastise writer Tom Wheeler for ignoring the glory that was Rome in the movies. Wheeler might be able to get away without reading Plutarch or Suetonius to develop this story, but ignoring "Julius Caesar" and "Cleopatra" is arguably a bigger affront to the gods.

The story of how Octavius became Augustus ("the boy who became a god" according to "Empire") is certainly a story worth telling. In terms of movies and mini-series there is a gap between the Octavius we find at the end of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" and Elizabeth Taylor's "Cleopatra," and the Emperor Augustus we meet at the start of "I Claudius." Great things were expected of Julius Caesar, but not Octavius, so the fact that he succeeded is a riches to royalty story of some interest. However, while Wheeler's script is interested in this transformation it does not make the transformation all that interesting.

Julius Caesar (Colm Feore) is at what would prove to be the heights of his power although he has still greater ambitions. Well aware he is the eye of Rome's political hurricane, Caesar gives the gladiator Tyrannus (Jonathan Cake) his freedom and hires him as a bodyguard. Unbeatable in the arena, Tyrannus has an Achilles heel in his love for his wife and son, which means he is not there when Brutus (James Frain) and Cassius (Michael Maloney) strike down Caesar in the Senate. This time, after doing his variation on the "Et tu, Brute?" line Caesar survives long enough to tell Tyrannus to make sure he keeps Octavius alive. The unspoken charge is that Tyrannus will help Octavius (Santiago Cabrera) grow up, so that instead of being a spoiled patrician he can become (wait for it) Caesar.

"Empire" keeps trying to set up action sequences where Tyrannus has to save Octavius's life, but this is not "Gladiator." The political intrigue is more interesting and the biggest problem is that the most fascinating character in the cast is Marc Antony (Vincent Regan). When Caesar dies and names Octavius his heir, Antony does not even blink. Was he passed over because Caesar found him unworthy or because the assassination came before Caesar was thinking long term? Regardless, Antony looks at Octavius and does not see a Caesar. The screenplay quickly removes the assassins from the scene and what we end up with is a life or death struggle between Octavius and Antony. Fortunately Octavius has the will of Caesar, the help of not only Tyrannus but Antony's foe Cicero (Michael Byrne), and the good wishes of the Vestal Vrigin Camane (Emily Blunt). All Antony has on his side is a smart wife, but she has no legions, where as Octavius stumbles across a lost one in the woods.

Octavius does have a few moments where you see the spark that will make him emperor, but there is no clear motivation for his evolution besides the fact the story assumes it takes place. Besides twirling his swords Tyrannus has little to really say in terms of instruction, and Cicero, who would have plenty to say, decides to be overly cryptic for a great orator. The sets look great and the casting is solid if not stellar. Regan stands out because he is given the most to do and does it well while the rest of the cast struggles with the by the numbers approach to political ascension. I find myself wishing that the death of Caesar had happened later in the story (akin to where Wild Bill Hickock buys it in the first season of "Deadwood"), not only because it would give Feore more to do but also because he could have started grooming young Octavius.

This last period of Civil War before the birth of the Roman Empire was filled with fascinating characters, important battles, and dangerous political intriques (Cicero was not only killed, but had his hands cuts off and a pin put through his tongue because of that attacks he wrote and spoke against Antony). Clearly the model for "Empire" is "Gladiator," but it should have been "I Claudius." Certainly a Roman soap opera played out on a grand stage would have made much more compelling summer fare. I will confess to having higher hopes for "Rome," which will focus on the last years of the reign of Julius Caesar.

When I watched this, I decided I had a moral obligation to warn people from buying this DVD set!!

The good: The series was filmed in Italy, and the actor who plays Anthony is pretty good. That's it.

The bad: The film is a direct rip off of the movies "Gladiator", "Spartacus", and even "The Beastmaster". And every character fits some Roman cliche: The hero is surrounded by corrupt senators, a wise poet, his love interest is a Vestal Virgin, and he's saved by a gladiator time and time again.

And forget history. The writers just made it up from scratch. That wouldn't be so bad, except that the story they came up with is far less interesting than what really happened. And incredibly, in the interviews section, one of the writers said he wanted to present a "realistic" picture of Rome! Just a few of the departures from history: Somehow they forgot to even mention Cleopatra in this conflict, and they also forgot that the decisive battle between Anthony and Octavian was fought at sea, not land. Its also nice to know that ancient Rome was an integrated society like the USA, with the same black/white ethnic mix and even a black man as its most powerful general!

There's one scene that's so ridiculous it defies belief. An animal trainer villian dressed like the "beastmaster" lets loose his trained snakes (there is no such thing as a "trained snake"!!), which kill an entire mansion full of guests at a party, with the bodies laying around covered in blood - I'm not joking here!

Jeez, at least they could have thrown in some gratuitous nudity, or something! If you want to see a better version of the events of this period, I would recommend instead the HBO "Rome" series, the "Cleopatra" mini-series starring Timothy Dalton, or the Elizabeth Taylor version of "Cleopatra". Or even read Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar", its far closer to actual History.

I enjoy Roman history, so I rented "Empire" on netflix. I admit, I could barely sustain my interest as I watched a group of gladiators fight (one with a full facial tribal tattoo), versus our hero, anachronistically attired Tyranus. Come on people. This is the height of the Roman empire. Characters are dressed like braveheart extras or rejects from the world wrestling federation.

Next, we see young Octavius flirting with a vestal virgin. Come on people? A vestal virgin? They were kept under lock and key and chaperoned. Roman women were not roaming around on the streets and speaking their minds to rich upperclass men unless they were loose.

This was overall, pretty cheesy, and worse boring- I'm having trouble maintaining my interest.

I quite enjoyed watching this. I thought it was well-written and produced, with good dramatic touches. It's at least two steps up from the drek miniseries that are produced for the sci-fi channel or FX by the bushell lately.

But it's not a truly great work.
This is basically a revisit to the substance and style of Russell Crowe's Gladiator, which was itself excellent, but time has passed and this feels like a well-intentioned retread instead of an original work.

They should have filled out the cast and modeled it after the Soprano's, or copied the style of the BBC's sublime I-Claudius directly. But they don't appear to have the talent or nimble touch for that kind of character-based work.

Still, young Octavian makes several key decisions and grows in the role, and many characters had mixed motives and some real depth. It didn't talk down to the audience. They really needed to make a longer miniseries for everything to come to full fruition.

So there was something there. So one should enjoy this for the well-written, fun, heavy-handed historical soap opera as it is. It's a worthy, enjoyable entertainment.

This is quite an ambitious, entertaining and interesting work of historical fiction. The story opens just before the Ides of March and takes us through the beginning of the reign of Octavion (who would come to be known as Caesar Augustus). At the outset, it needs to be admitted that there are a great many liberties taken with history in this film. Even calling it a "representation" of what actually took place would be a bit of a stretch.

The story centers on a fictional gladiator named Tyrannus who is assigned to be Octavion's body guard after his uncle Julius is assasinated. One of the things that this movie DOES get right (historically) is that Octavion is portrayed as being right around 18 years old. That is entirely accurate. Octavion was this age when he went to Rome to claim his inheritance. Most movies I have seen that deal w/this time period portray Octavion as a grown man, which is false.

The movie does a good job of invoking some personages and cultural institutions of Rome that don't normally get a lot of air-time in movies about Rome. Among these are Octavion's best friend and best general, Agrippa. Another is Rome's greatest orator, Marcus Tullius Cicero. The tradition of the Vestal Virgins is also tied into the story in a clever way.

A curious omission to this time frame is the character of Cleopatra. There is an Egyptian girl in the movie, but we're not told her name and she has such a bit part as to be almost an afterthought. Obviously the storyline demanded that they go in a different direction, but it's still somewhat odd to look at this period w/out Cleopatra being involved.

All in all, this is a fairly well done effort. The acting is solid and the direction is pretty good. The biggest fault that I can see is that it seemed incomplete. They failed to tie up some loose ends, and I found that irritating. The ending to me seemed to fizzle out somewhat instead of being dramatic. However, all-in-all, it's a good investment if you're a big fan of the history of Rome.

The real story of Octavian's rise to power, the real events, his real personality and that of Antony and others in the real story is so much more interesting than any fictionalized account could be --- especially one as awful as this. The story line of this series is stupid: Ceaser frees a gladiator/slave to protect Octavian, octavian runs into hiding and is eventually sold as a slave all the while being saved again and again by the faithful if crabby and under-appreciated gladiator and the inability of the near-satanic Cassius and swishy Brutus to kill him off. From one impossible situation to the next, Octavian's spoiled and wimpy self manages to suffer ill-deserved dumb luck. Octavians character in the series is the exact opposite of what is well described in authentic history; ditto for Antony, Brutus and Cassius.

All the events, characterizations and situations of this film are just plain silly. But again, why? when the reality of this historical episode and the people who were involved in it is so fascinating?? Sex, murder, intrique, wanton destruction, glory, its all there in the real thing and, unlike this series, it makes for a ripping good story. If the acting talent and resources employed to make this series had been put to a serious attempt at historical (and entertaining) film making it could have been great.

GARBAGE! GARBAGE! GARBAGE! AAIIIEEEEEEE! My brain is melting.I have never written a review on Amazon before, but after sitting through this Turkeyosaur (I can't believe I watched the whole thing, I think I was mesmerized and rendered unable to respond by hitting the off-switch by an evil spirit)I felt it my duty to my fellow man and woman to warn them about it. This is the most ludicrous and ridiculous piece of junk ever reduced to celluloid. It makes Plan Nine from Outer Space look like a combination of Casablanca, Gone With the Wind, To Kill a Mockingbird and Ben-Hur. Everybody associated with this thing would be banned from the film industry for life if there were any justice. It bears no semblance to history after the first twenty minutes, the only things even remotely historical are the names of the supposedly historical characters. The writing is awful, the acting is awful and everybody looks like they are walking through a grungy music video. Can't anybody make a decent historical costume drama anymore? The only decent ones of the last fifteen years have been Tombstone and Master and Commander, but this one is by far the worst. Has everybody's brain turned to jello? They're laughing at us, folks! Please, please don't support these fools and dumbdowners by buying this! I'm burning the copy I have as a sacrifice in an attempt to appease the muse of drama. My only regret is that Amazon won't let me post a lower rating.....

Entertaining. Harsh reviewes should not deter you. No, it's not "ROME" - but it's still great fun. Get it - it's available very inexpensively & worth a try.

Empire brings to the screen the rise to power of one of the most well known historical figures: Roman Emperor Octavius Augustus.
Nevertheless, it is a series that brings to life the director's version of how he would have liked Octavius' rise to be. The movie does not faithfully follow the sources associated with the well known Roman emperor (even though historians should have been hired to do just that), rather it is a film BASED on and INSPIRED by the legendary emperor, and therefore has a great deal of flaws and deviations from the truth.
One could list one after another the discrepancies that occur, and for those that have read/studied Roman History, it is common knowledge that the list would be very long indeed, some will say too long... From this very long list the most important alteration was in relation to the historical discrepancies regarding the "disappearance" of the co-regency between Octavius and Marc Anthony that seems to have miraculously slipped the writers' minds, not to mention that Julius Caesar is to have perished on the Senate steps, and not while sitting inside the Senate.
As other reviewers have also pointed out, the series starts off pretty well and it is mainly in the second half that Empire goes "Xena" on us.
Therefore, once it is established that this is a work of fiction and not an historical adaptation things change, though the problems do not go away, they just transform;
1) To start with, Empire is very biased against the Senate, the Patricians, and even/especially Marc Anthony!
2) Where is the piety and sternness associated with Augustus?
2) Octavius seems to be getting out of too many impossible situations too often.
3) The slave out of nowhere, Tyrannus, attempts to provide a Spartacus/Gladiator feel that does not need to be present in a film about Octavius.
4) No one recognized Tyrannus or Octavius in the Gladiator School (!!!)
5) Magonius was a little too dark to be a Roman General (of the 4th Legion).
6) The "Legendary 3rd" while interesting (!) was like something out of Pirates of the Caribbean and LOR's Return of the King more than anything else.
7) The nurse at Marc Anthony's villa was more Nubian than Egyptian.
8) Marcus Agrippa was a teenager!
And the list goes on and on...
On the positive side, the acting and cast are very good (overall).
Moreover, the setting, the dialogues and the costumes are also commendable!
Even though this is a Hollywoodish production and one should be more flexible and lenient when dealing with adaptations, one should also keep in mind that this is Octavian Augustus in question and not some petty, modern leader. Therefore, the only real problem arises when the majority of people (and most people have NOT read/studied the sources) who see the series start believing that events happened the way the film depicts/portrays and not the way they actually occurred. Consequently, due to these distortions, the movie establishes a very serious threat of producing armies of misinformed people who think they have accurate knowledge of Octavius Augustus when they really do not. That is NOT good!
The dead heroes would be turning in their graves if they knew what is being written and said about them by people who are either misinformed or are purposely out to distort the truth in following their own personal agendas.
Hopefully, more films will be made set in the ancient times, as the demand for them is definitely there, but please let's make them accurate.
In a nutshell, though not a masterpiece, Empire will provide for an evening's entertainment, especially for those with a soft spot for History and all things Roman, though you might not want to go as far as purchasing it.

When I first heard that ABC was going to be putting on a historical drama about the Roman Empire, I made sure that I was going to see it. I was not disappointed.

Empire takes a heavily fictionalized account of the time after the assassination of Julius Caesar. It is a compelling story and was very worth my time to watch as Octavian grows from the bratty patrician, to a criminal, to the leader of the Republic. While the cast is not well known, they still pulled their parts off quite well. And the decision to shoot in Italy was a wise one, as it gives a certain degree of authenticity to the show.

Now, those who are expecting a smaller version of Gladiator will be sorely disappointed. While Gladiator was primarily an action movie, Empire is a drama, and furthermore, is without Russell Crowe. The series is also best viewed with a degree of historical knowledge, so it may only appeal to history dorks like me. Though if you do decide to view it, I believe you will not be disappointed.