…………………………………………………

The Last Emperor Movie Review

The Last Emperor is a 1987 biographical film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci and it won nine Academy Awards including Best Picture.

………………………………………………….

“This isn’t a school; it’s a prison. A real prison“

………………………………………………….

………………………………………………….

This is another 1980s Best Picture winner that not only did not deserve the honor, but it also is not a good film, rather a mediocre one. It is better than ‘Chariots of Fire’, but it is worse than ‘Gandhi’.  This is another not so much relevant story that spans decades and that is told in three hour long running time which is again totally unnecessary.

The characters are forgettable and the acting is literally nothing to write home about. But the tone and pacing is so slow and the movie is definitely incredibly boring and dreadfully uninteresting. I literally almost fell asleep watching it. Nothing ever happens, nothing interesting or mildly intriguing and that is why it was a total waste of time.

Granted, the technical aspects are solid here. The cinematography is good, but the production design is of course excellent and quite remarkable as is the costume design. However, the direction and of course the editing is pretty mediocre and does not stand out.

………………………………………………….

………………………………………………….

This movie is not only overlong and tedious, but also too incredibly old-fashioned and dated in its approach which is just too casual and straightforward. There is no energy or investment shown here, not to mention that the character development is awfully weak and the emotions are not present at all. The message and point here also escaped me leaving me to the conclusion that this a cold, pointless movie without a doubt.

The Last Emperor has good production and costume design, but great technical aspects do not make movies good. The story is boring, the tone is tedious, the character development is literally non-existent, the emotional investment is definitely lacking, the running time is expectedly overblown, the direction and acting are nothing to write home about and the film lacks any message, point, emotion and energy in its execution whatsoever. It is again a testament to how bad Academy’s choices were in this decade leading to what is arguably an overrated, overlong and dreadfully uninteresting movie that is best to be forgotten.

My Rating – 3

………………………………………………….