There’s, with out a shadow of a doubt, a lavish historic epic to be made about Boudica, queen of the British Iceni, famed chariot consumer and killer of Romans. We are able to think about her being the subject of the final film for Ridley Scott earlier than he retires. It’s crying out for a big canvas to inform her story.
This interpretation of Boudica is just not that historic epic. It’s received some spirited performances and a few satisfying, bloody deaths, however its canvas is about as giant as a five-pence piece. Too usually, it could really feel like somebody has smuggled an iPhone right into a historic reenactment, moderately than it being a sweeping story of one in all Britain’s most celebrated figures.
Boudica makes the daring selection of casting Ukrainian actor Olga Kurylenko as its British queen. Co-star of Quantum of Solace, she is completely able to bearing a movie on her shoulders, however right here she appears out of her depth. It’s actually not a straightforward function to promote – the writers make the daring determination of constructing her a meek companion to the stronger Prasutagus, which supplies her an enormous distance to cross to finally change into the warrior queen.
That span is just too far for each the efficiency and the script. Olga performs Boudica as doey-eyed and insulated from the motion within the first half, whereas a pointy pivot forces us to simply accept her as a Chosen One within the second half. Instantly, she performs the function of Boudica, screaming and staring maniacally at anybody who approaches her. She doesn’t have the commanding presence to tug this off, and the blind devotion she calls for from her British tribes feels false in consequence. We’re undecided anybody might have pulled it off within the whiplash-inducing timeframe and with the state of the script that’s been handed to her.
A half-hearted stab at mysticism doesn’t assist issues. A number of occasions tease that Boudica could also be backed by the gods, they usually principally left us chortling into our tea. Not since The Final Jedi’s Princess Leia second was there a extra pointless and misplaced use of magic.
Some performances do threaten to pull the biopic out of its sub-BBC costume drama doldrums. Clive Standen as Prasutagus is commanding, whereas we had been continuously ready for Peter Franzen (The Wheel of Time) as Wolfgar to connive or backstab Boudica. Lucy Martin, too, makes an impression as one in all Boudica’s warrior girls. However they’re all mired in route that makes the occasions distractingly small.
It by no means looks like greater than ten or twelve Brits are surrounding Boudica at anybody time, and a lot of the metropolis sieges are executed at evening. It tightens the main target round Boudica, but additionally makes the forces she instructions appear impossibly small. Viewers who haven’t heard of Boudica can be excused for considering that she led a tribe of a dozen or so women and men, such is the modesty of what’s on display. It gives the look that somebody approached a bunch of reenactors in the event that they fancied being in a film, which most likely isn’t too removed from the reality.
Director Jessie V Johnson has a historical past in stunt work, which comes throughout within the handful of fights. They’re not notably flowing or clever – uneven enhancing will do this to a film – however there’s some gusto right here. There’s a number of blood, too, and a imply eye for enjoyable moments of carnage. A blinking decapitated head doesn’t maintain as much as any form of CGI scrutiny, however it’s good enjoyable.
The issue is that Boudica is rarely campy sufficient to be entertaining, nor sufficient within the occasions it’s portraying to be intriguing. As a substitute, it dearly needs to hint the arc of a proud, barely coddled lady all the best way to the face-painted firebrand that we all know from historical past. However Olga Kurylenko can’t carry that load, the script doesn’t assist her by making her metamorphosis unbelievable, and the route makes the change appear so small, so inconsequential.
Boudica deserves a real film tribute. Her story is just too nice to not. When that occurs, we’ll safely file this film away as an also-ran.
