‘It’s Not Very Good’: Queen Cleopatra Bombs With Viewers And Critics
Netflix’s Queen Cleopatra documentary sequence has flopped with critics and audiences amid controversy over inaccurately portraying Cleopatra’s ethnic background.
The documentary sequence, which depicts Cleopatra as Sub-Saharan African, has to this point been poorly obtained by critics since its Wednesday launch. Queen Cleopatra has an 11% critics score on assessment aggregator web site Rotten Tomatoes, amongst 9 opinions. Audiences have been much more harsh, with solely 2% giving the documentary a constructive assessment in over 2,500 opinions. (RELATED: Scientists Map The Genome Of Historic Egyptian Kings, And They Weren’t From Africa)
Roger Moore, a reviewer with Film Nation, rated the sequence a 2 out of 4 and stated it doesn’t convincingly promote its personal narrative.
“The scripts arrange a thesis — that she was an agent of her personal future, not simply swept together with it, that she was achieved, realized and crafty and Black — and by no means fairly closes the deal,” Moore stated in his assessment.
Romey Norton of Prepared Regular Reduce questioned why the mission was ever made within the first place.
“It’s not excellent. Total, it lacks context, character, and a cause for being made,” Norton stated.
My article for @ForeignPolicy about Netflix’s Queen Cleopatra: its makers determined to problem historic anti-Black racism in the USA by revisionism of one other racialized folks’s personal historical past with out caring about how these folks may react.https://t.co/es6OPPDY6G
— Sara Khorshid سارة خورشيد (she/her) (@SaraKhorshid) May 14, 2023
Viewers reviewer “Sorin G” claimed the mission was merely not good, even whereas attempting to miss the historic inaccuracies.
“So with all of the controversy on this i attempted to look at it and kinda ignore all of the historic “accuracy” from this documentary ( i cant even write the phrase documentary associated to this and never snigger ) and nonetheless was very dangerous,” Sorin G stated.
One other viewers reviewer stated documentaries ought to stay factual and never veer into the realm of fantasy.
“[H]istory and fantasy shouldnt get combined in a documentary,” stated viewers critic Daniel P
Viewers reviewer Semilamist implied the documentary was an affront to the work of consultants reminiscent of archeologists who’ve extra information about Cleopatra’s life.
“Archeologist might have simply requested jada pinkett’s grandma what pores and skin colour Cleopatra had as an alternative of spending years finding out hieroglyphs, work, carvings and busts made by individuals who really noticed her 2000 years in the past,” Semilamist stated.
Queen Cleopatra has evoked a lot criticism over the mission’s portrayal of Cleopatra was a black lady. An Egyptian lawyer sued Netflix, accusing the documentary of attempting to “erase Egyptian id.” Adele James, the actress who portrays Cleopatra, dismissed the criticism and claimed blackwashing, “isn’t a factor.” The director of the sequence claimed the backlash was rooted in Egyptians’ distaste of their African heritage.
“Maybe, it’s not simply that I’ve directed a sequence that portrays Cleopatra as Black, however that I’ve requested Egyptians to see themselves as Africans, and they’re livid at me for that. I’m okay with this,” Queen Cleopatra director Tina Gharavi wrote.
