This movie is a portrait of peaks and valleys. What works is pretty good, but the stuff that doesn't really doesn't.
Our hero is William Wallace, a real historical figure that fought for Scottish independence in med While he was a extraordinary dude, you can see by looking at a map of Europe, he did not succeed.
But on to the movie. Wallace doesn't actually fight the British until that one day when everything changed... When the British killed his wife! Historically Wallace did start fighting after his girlfriend was killed by Brits, but the movie doesn't do anything with it. She just gets killed. It's not even graphic, she gets her throat cut, and the camera avoids her gore. It'll show generic troops that are just doing their job get gruesomely massacred, but the death that's supposed to haunt us and get us to get 100% behind Wallace is just glossed over. Credit where it's do, the executioner died the same way Wallace's wife did. I can always get behind that.
If it went straight action and Scottish patriotism from there, there'd still be problems but it'd be pretty good. What shoots this movie in the foot is how it frequently stops to show us the English nobles talking. It's so very boring and only serves to remind us that the British king is a short-tempered angry little buttstamp.
The action consists of Scots killing Brits. The only time Scots die is in an arrow barrage. That doesn't help me root for Wallace, the British look helpless, they get perpetually owned. It doesn't hurt that Wallace and his men get more sadistic as the movie goes on. They go as far as to lock troops in a house and burn it down. I can forgive it during the battle right after his wife died, but after 90 minutes they look like ruthless savages.
The motivation is unbearably cliché and too flimsy to justify 3 hours of slaughtering incompetent cannon fodder. The pacing is erratic and can kill a mood. However when Wallace gives a speech, or it delves into patriotism it can rile you up for the upcoming battle. Robert the Bruce, Hamish, and Stephen were great characters. And the last 20 minutes were amazing! Ultimately when something worked it was flawless. Unfortunately the stuff that didn't was either a slog or takes you out of it. If this movie were chopped down to an hour of the good stuff, it'd be a glorious experience. But it isn't. It's got gold buried in a lot of mud.
Cliché motivation
Lackluster turning point
Overpowered heroes
Underpowered villains
Dull main characters
Good side characters
Epic ending
Classic quote
7/10 Mixed Bag
There is some REALLY good stuff here but there is so much meh between it.
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