Although the epic mini-series Empire manages to bring to the screen the chaos and political backstabbing that followed the murder of Caesar by the Roman senate, it fails to bring much of the excitement or the sense of danger often associated with the time period.
The DVD contains unrated and unaired scenes to the epic mini-series and stars Santiago Cabrera as Octavius; Vincent Regan as Marc Anthony; Emily Blunt as Camane; Jonathan Cake as Tyrannus; and Colm Feore as Caesar.
The movie tells the story of Rome’s greatest gladiator Tyrannus, and how he became the guardian for both Caesar and Octavius (after Caesar’s death). The series’ plot focuses on the power struggle that held Rome following Caesar’s murder by the Senate, and the rise of Octavius – who Caesar named as his heir to the throne.
For his part, Tyrannus tries to keep Octavius alive, and also train him in how he should become a leader of men. This dedication to Caesar and the gladiator’s oath to the dying emperor cost Tyrannus dearly. Through the course of the movie, Tyrannus loses his wife, and goes from the thrill of the gladiator arena to serving as a free man in Rome’s army.
Much of the movie takes place as a young Octavius is on the run (with Tyrannus) from Marc Anthony, and later his struggle to raise an army large enough to challenge Anthony for the right to rule Rome.
Cake’s performance is intense at times
This journey of Octavius leaves parts of the film rather long and boring at times, and hurts the overall feel of the movie. It also reminds you that you are watching something that is borrowing heavily from the plots of epics that have come before it.
The mini-series has several similarities to recent “epic” style movies (most notably Gladiator), and seems to pattern its plot on the success of what has come before it.
Cabrera and Cake do good jobs in their roles, but the film starts to have just a standard “adventure genre” feel to it, and loses a lot of epic qualities as it goes on. As the two go from one adventure to another, the plot seems to shift away from Rome and head more into a light hearted “Saturday afternoon adventure series” - such as Xena Warrior Princess or The Adventures of Hercules.
Cabrera’s Octavius is young, spoiled and takes some time to like. The series is very much about his journey and the actor does a good job at showing you different sides of the character. However, he quickly becomes a “warrior” towards the end of the series, and it all feels a bit rushed by the time the credits roll – even if it took so long to get there.
Cake’s performance is intense at times, but the gladiator lacks enough action to really keep you interested in his character. We learn quickly why he is the best gladiator in Rome, but the series then slows down with the action.
Octavius quickly becomes a warrior
Also, the comparison to Cake and the other recent big screen gladiator may leave some people wanting a bit more. There isn’t enough battles to give Cake a chance to measure up to what we saw on the big screen, and at times you forget that he was even a gladiator.
For his part, Regan is excellent in the role of Marc Anthony and you are never quite sure just how far his lust for power will take him in the beginning. His character quickly loses much of his strength towards the end of the movie, and the show begins to lack even more without a clear villain.
Along with this father/son bonding story of Tyrannus and Octavius, we get the story of the corrupt Roman senate, and the power lust of Marc Anthony – who feels betrayed by Caesar naming of his heir. None of these plots really develop more than just background for the overall story, and seem weak in light of HBO’s series Rome – which follows the corruption of the period in greater detail.
Although the two series shouldn’t be compared to each other, given one was on network television and the other is HBO, you can not help but feel Empire comes up lacking. This could be due to the restrictions of network television, but some is just a weak plot and poor character development on the part of Empire.
Regan is excellent in the role of Marc Anthony
The DVD does come with two special features that go into the making of the epic. Rebuilding an Empire and Empire Before and After take fans of the series into what it took to bring the epic to the screen, and how the show went about creating the look for each characters and the sets.
Although it has been done before and done better, Empire does have a plot that will hold the interest of fans of the epic genre. It is a bit slow from time to time, and several of the characters could have been better developed. Still, I would recommend it for anyone who enjoys the “swords and sandals” type of movies.
Empire is available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD’s database for more information.
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