Review of 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992) by Marti H — 21 Feb 2011

Ridley Scott always immerses us into a rich world with strong visual style, sadly in this case though, the story is sadly lacking to back up the style. The plot is extremely muddled and often drags for long stretches of time, even many sequences, which in themselves are memorable and beautifully captured, seem to have no reason to actually belong in the film.

Depardieu, although a good actor, and a man who elicits strong sympathy, and certainly fits the part physically, but we can never follow his character, his acting is confused, and his accent horrendously distracting.

Side characters fare a little better, but still seem to randomly pop in and out without much weight. Also, Vangelis' score is at times glorious, but most often is just horribly out of place, and sticks out like a sore thumb.

Overall, although there's much to respect, you also have to wade through too much muck to get there.