"Alexander grips the imagination," says a woman in Alexander: The Making of a God. Someone else describes him as "a poet, a philosopher." The talking heads shower this great king with lavish praises. But the series, through its recreations, presents Alexander as a (mostly) solemn teenager - a wannabe legend. It doesn't help that Buck Braithwaite's performance, too, seems affected. His stern face desperately sells the appearance of authority, of power. Braithwaite wants to show Alexander as a mighty ruler. However, he only looks like a drama student who wants to impress others in his acting class. The series fails to display Alexander as glorious, and Braithwaite's performance further undermines this character.
Alexander: The Making of a God looks silly from the beginning itself. As soon as a woman broke the fourth wall and uttered, "A war is coming," I burst into laughter. More ridiculous is the steps the series takes to connect this woman with Alexander. Director Hugh Ballantyne wants to present it all as fantastical, though it only ends up being ludicrous. By moving between talking heads and recreations, Alexander: The Making of a God sacrifices the strengths of both documentary and fiction. The statements from the experts, more often than not, end up pointing out the obvious. For instance, when Mazaeus (Alain Ali Washnevsky) receives a letter from Alexander, the experts talk about his mental state and his confusion. But we understand such simple things by following the "plot," by looking at the character's expressions.
As a result, you wonder why Ballantyne didn't stick to a particular genre. He could have either made a documentary or a fictional TV show because this mixture is truly unremarkable. It dulls the statements, the action. The recreations have a cheap aesthetic. The fight scenes are devoid of a violent force. When Alexander sees Darius (Mido Hamada) for the first time, the moment is described as historical. But nothing on the screen looks "historical" or spectacular. Similarly, the scene where Alexander "unties" a complicated knot is meant to be monumental - a magnificent achievement. But it's executed so casually, so unremarkably, that you feel as if Alexander has untied his shoelaces.
Perhaps Ballantyne mixed the two genres so he could take lazy shortcuts, so he could give us a scene like the one where Barsine (Nada El Belkasmi), within a few seconds, goes from complaining about a "bastard sibling" to praying for Alexander's safe return. The events in the series are presented like bullet points. Alexander and his companions battle "high, high temperatures" to reach Siwa, yet their faces appear sweatless, and the journey itself looks easy and effortless. The makeup department makes them presentably dirty. They don't seem to have walked in the desert but rather played with sand at their local children's park.
Alexander: The Making of a God fails to generate any curiosity regarding its subject. Its bland filmmaking, unimpressive anecdotes, and so-so performances make you wonder if the title of the documentary about the making of this Netflix series would be Alexander: The Making of a Humdrum Show.
Final Score- [3/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times