Film Review: Napoleon is an uneven, sweeping epic that tells us little we don't already know

"The broad strokes will be familiar to anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of European history, which is probably why Scott gives us broad strokes: Bonaparte fires his cannon at the pyramids, orchestrates the brutal massacre of Austerlitz, and urges his men onwards to the gates of Moscow."

Joaquin Phoenix stars as Napoleon Bonaparte in Napoleon

• Napoleon
• ★★★★☆
• Cinema release

History, they say, is one damn thing after another, which pretty much sums up Ridley Scott’s approach to Napoleon (15A), which follows the upstart Corsican (Joaquin Phoenix) as he rises through the ranks during the French Revolution to become the terror of all Europe due to a lethal combination of military genius, vaulting ambition and a pathological sense of insecurity.