Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Why is the African Queen from the African Nation of Ancient Egypt Caucasian? There is several complaints about fictional characters who were traditionally casted as White males being played by "potentially" played by Black actors so why are you casting White Women in the role of historically black figures? Netflix is supposedly on the empowerment of Black film train but when it comes to showing their true historical factual selves they are being white-washed out? America needs to see the truth depicted in a series like this otherwise when are you going to show the Caesar portrayed by a actor of African decent? I guarantee that there would be a tremendous outcry had the majority of the cast been opposite of the race that these characters were historically. It's almost as it has been a coordinated effort to disguise and misrepresent the factual identities of historical figures of African decent.

There's definitely a lot of historical inaccuracies but it's entertainment and there's lots to learn for people that don't know anything about that time period.

I had thought I had grown out of the childish nitpickery of historical accuracy in depictions of ancient Greece/Rome movies, TV shows, documentaries, whatever. But when a series gets it so painfully, horribly wrong as this, I just can't get over it and start anemically yelling at the TV again. The first season was about Commodus. I know very little about the Roman Empire at this point so I couldn't vouch for many of the historical accuracy, except to say that the series is fixated on the old style myth that all gladiatorial bouts were fights to the death.Gladiatorial bouts were very rarely fights to the death, although I would give some leeway to this period in time, in particular because Commodus is the one fighting the gladiators in the arena and needs to seem invincible.A whole lot of other minor details are gotten wrong, few of them would be enough to deter from the information or entertainment value, but when it's a constant stream of little things that are either partly or completely wrong or anachronistic, it starts to become pitiful considering this is not an actual TV show, but a highly stylized documentary. There are fictional re-enactments and depictions, but it's still a documentary, and it's somehow worse than an average TV show. The second season is where it reaches into a time period I know and can whine about properly.From the very start, the selection of the actors to portray the triumvirs, Caesar, Pompeius, and Crassus, look absolutely nothing like the people they're supposed to depict. That's hardly a big deal in terms of fictional depictions, but it goes beyond that, to a point where Pompey is bald and has a beard, and Crassus has a mop of curly hair. Every single depiction of Pompey has him with a diamond shaped head and hair, and almost no high ranking Roman in this period had facial hair at all. Crassus as well was old and balding, yet is depicted as being basically the same age as Caesar and Pompey. From there on, it starts off with a "history" of Caesar which is not even remotely close to being accurate. It depicts him as being a "lowly soldier" at age 16, of which is not only not true (he had been forcibly appointed Flamen Dialis by Gaius Marius, a position which forbade him from even touching a knife, much less be a soldier), but the fact that he was from a rich, land-owning patrician family meant he absolutely would NOT have been a "lowly soldier", no matter if he was poor or not. Next, it begins to show him engaged in a completely non-existent decade-long military career, culminating in him inexplicably taking part in the war against Spartacus, not only a small part, but apparently a LEADING ROLE in commanding at least a legion. In reality Caesar by this time had only just gotten out of his position as Flamen Dialis and had a brief stint fighting in Asia Minor, which is where he negotiated with King Nicomedes to secure a fleet, sparking rumors that he seduced Nicomedes and allowed the king to have sex with him, something his political opponents would exploit the hell out of later on. By the time Spartacus's revolt even happened, Caesar was in Rome acting as a legal advocate and making his name in the law courts. INEXPLICABLY given how much this series wants to focus on blood and guts and glory, they leave out a TRUE (or at least historically recorded) story that says more about Caesar than any of the fake, boring stuff they put forth before it.Caesar was captured by pirates, and taken to their pirate base. There, he used his wit and charisma to befriend the pirates, and they took a liking to him. All the while, he told them that once he was ransomed, he would come back and crucify them all. The pirates all laughed, thinking him joking. Then Caesar was ransomed, and he came back with a small fleet and had all the pirates crucified. For absolutely no reason at all, this story is not mentioned at all, looking to a very fake depiction of Spartacus's last battle and diving straight into a triumvirate with Curly Crassus and Bearded Pompey. Worse, they fall into the stupid-trap of apparently thinking that there was only one Consul at a time. Every year two Consuls were elected, and this series portrays Caesar as being the only Consul elected for his year. On top of that, they do a typical spin so bad as to be a lie in the form of the gangs; they depict Caesar as directly utilizing street gangs in Rome to directly assault and intimidate Senators. Not only would that have been insanely illegal and gotten Caesar killed on sight by the Senate (they had previously done exactly this against several other figures, such as the Gracchi or Marcus Drusus), but it implies a serious anachronism towards the Senate. Probably due to its strong fixation on the ineptitude of the Senate in season 1 covering Commodus, it extends the same false belief into this season with Caesar. The Senate, by Caesar's time, was not an inept and mewling bunch that could do nothing. It was a collection of tyrants in its own right, and Caesar's rise was not something inevitable due to the weakness of the Senate. Caesar's rise was one of masterful diplomacy and cunning, specifically because at any given moment had he slipped up, the Senate would have literally had him killed. His popularity with the people and his strong political connections were his only shield against the malevolent threat of the ultraconservative Senate. Here, he's basically just a thug, bullying his way into power while the Senate meekly mewls and stands by. As well, they constantly use footage from the BBC movie "Hannibal: Rome's Worst Nightmare", where they actually used historically accurate style armor, shields, and helmets, so you will occasionally see these realistic looking legionaries, fighting in formation, spliced in with legionaries in the plate-mail and square shields of the mid-Empire fighting one man army without formation.They also stupidly mispronounce Vercingetorix as "Versinjetorix"

If you like the Discovery channel documentaries - you will love this series - if you liked HBO's Rome and Spartacus - you will not. I was hoping for something like HBO's Rome but what I got was a 21st century running dialog about Rome during the reign of Commodus - it was interesting but I was looking to be entertained not educated. Given the ratings - I am obviously in the minority - it will give it this - it is well done just like my old history teacher.