Spartacus (2004)

"Spartacus" is a movie which is a landmark in the film history, and inevitably this movie compared with the epic movie "Spartacus" of 1960 with Kirk Douglas as Spartacus."Spartacus" divided into two parts. The first part of it is better than second because has more action and show us the effort of the people for freedom. Counter to second part which is not as good as the first, I think that the second part is boring and awful. The only good part of this movie is Rhona Mitra who played as Varinia and is really beautiful. If you want to see a movie of "Spartacus", then watch the classic movie of 1960 "Spartacus" not any remake of this.

With a mythic story like Spartacus, you can't expect too much accuracy and realism, especially with differing stories on the subject. Onen theory is that Spartacus was a Roman, who fought in the legions, but was arrested for treason after refusing to obey commands and defying his commander, and who abandoned his name and took the name Spartacus when he was enslaved. The whole "Thracian" thing developed because at the time there were two types of gladiatorial fighting styles---Gallic and Thracian, and he was Thracian.Another story goes that he really was a Thracian, who fought in the Roman legions (probably auxiliary) or earned his citizenship and fought in the legions, then the same thing happened and he became a slave and w/e. I don't care which to believe.In this TV version I was very impressed with the cinematography and costumes and such, but it suffers a lot from cliché's. For one, all the Romans are depicted as villainous, greedy scum who don't care about anything--not even other Romans, by the looks of it; all the slaves are depicted as noble upright men forced into their current position but are all such noble godly men and such.Another thing which really annoys me is that this Spartacus is a full-blown atheist, which I think should have gotten his stupid little head crushed in by the other slaves--or killed by the black slave when he was ordered to fight him for Marcus Licinius Crassus's viewing pleasure. Listening to his dumb atheistic sayings like "i don't believe in anything unless i can see and touch it" is really lame and cliché', and it doesn't do much for his intelligence, either. Even a true atheist wouldn't base his atheism on something that childish and ignorant.Then the Roman armor really looks... they've got no armor--no scale plates like some depictions, no hamata lorica chain mail like in historical depictions, but BROWN LEATHER! Even their helmets are brown leather. Really ridiculous. The battle scenes are also very "Gladiator"-esque, with the soldiers pretty much wandering off to pick their own individual fights, but for their sake, they weren't even in formation in that scene, so that's an excuse.Then there's the slave uprising at the gladiator school, in which for some effed up reason, the legionaries outside go into testudo formation (used for deflecting ARROWS, JAVELINS, SLINGS) and get butchered in seconds by what are essentially gladiators armed with knives, daggers, and some spears.The performances are quite average on everyone's part, except Ian McNiece who is spectacular, and Angus Macfeyden is stupendous. His acting as Marcus Licinius Crassus is awesome. And I especially love that crazed look of disillusionment he does on the wall in Southern Italy when he discovers Spartacus has sneaked over the walls while distracting the Romans by sending cows with torches strapped to them to make them look like an army in the night. The guy who plays Spartacus is really abysmal.All in all, probably fun to watch, but if you're really into history like me, you'll be shouting at the TV screen like a lunatic, saying "nuh uh!" and "omg" and "impossible!" and such! One of my biggest complaints was the Senators' irrational and illogical fear that Crassus would overthrow the Republic. If anything, Pompeius should be their biggest concern for that sort of thing, yet they consider him some sort of hero of the Republic (not true) rather than the Picentine upstart he is. And there's absolutely no mention of Lucius Cornelius Sulla at all, who was only just dictator of Rome just a few years before the events and had a tremendous impact on Roman politics at the time. Sort of curious that Ian McNiece is in it, and the year after he would appear in HBO's "Rome" as the newsreader. He should've gotten a bigger role in "Rome" though.

If there is any reason to watch this remake, it is Alan Bates' brief appearance as Agrippa. This was his very last, and his easy brilliance is a treasure, as always. There is also some decent camera work and editing in this mini-series. Poor Goran V. is horribly miscast as Spartacus. If he had hoped to break his type-cast as a thoughtful, well-spoken intellectual type with this role, he should have put some organic, animalistic effort into it. Vin Diesel (whom I detest) would have been better casting for this part. And as much as I sometimes tire of Kirk Douglas's over-the-top acting, his raw power in the original Spartacus was a world-away more convincing.

Spartacus was the kind of mini-series that I just knew would be good from the start. Spanning a two day special on USA I watched the first part and just couldn't wait for the second half. Spartacus is played by Goran Visnjic from the TV series ER and shows he can be a tough guy too.The film starts with Spartacus being bought by a wealthy Roman to be a gladiator. Spartacus excels quickly and learns to be an excellent fighter but soon sees the horrible life he faces along with the other gladiators. After his friend is killed by Roman guards for refusing to kill him, Spartacus rebels against the cruel family that owns him and quickly crushes them. Now Spartacus is on a quest, along with other gladiator rebels, to overthrow the Roman Empire and abolish the gladiator games. Along the way, Spartacus must deal with insubordination of his soldiers, betrayal, and love. The battles are well done but just don't show the overwhelming victories Spartacus actually achieved in his quest. Goran Visnjic is exceptionally strong as Spartacus and really has some great sword work in battle. This is a superb mini-series with good drama, good action, and fine acting.Spartacus. Starring: Goran Visnjic, Alan Bates, Angus Macfadyen, and Rhona Mitra.4 out of 5 Stars.