Patronising, gimmicky, self-righteous. Over-use of direct to camera monologues by characters. Inexcusable inserted celebrity explanations of terms. I hate the attitude that suggests its OK for Hollywood to make a movie that makes a profit but which movie decries other people for doing their jobs in order to make a profit. Sort of like when a millionaire tells us all to give money for the poor.
All of it screamed that here's a director with no faith in how interesting the story is nor his ability to tell it interestingly. So he feels he has to resort to film-makers' tricks (massive CGI being out of the question for a non-fantasy film set in a real place) and uses them in an extremely jarring technique with monologue scripting that emphasises how jarring they are and how void his story-telling abilities. That's cynical and a little like a poor magician bungling his slight of hand and then showing you well its all a trick anyway so surely it doesn't matter. Well it does.
I was so disappointed not to enjoy this. Great episode from global history, tragically self-important film-making.
