PremiumDestination Ancient Rome Review – A stunning but tedious documentary about Roman history and architecture
Despite its flaws in terms of pacing and convoluted plot, the docufilm aims for a creative scope and somewhat hits the target with astonishing precision that brings the ancient designs to life.
Last Updated: 08.35 PM, Aug 24, 2024
Destination Ancient Rome plot
DocuBay’s latest release, Destination Ancient Rome, explores the challenges of living in ancient Rome with a key focus on housing, water supply, transportation, and entertainment. Directed by Herlé Jouon and François Guillaume, the documentary also observes the eternal city’s structure with modern technology and experts on the subject matter.
Destination Ancient Rome review
The documentary sheds light on the secrets of the world’s largest and most ancient city of Rome with all its splendour. Experts from the University of Caen, France, teamed up to recreate the marvels of Rome with technical advancements like 3D maps and other high-tech engineering tools.
It also draws attention to the city’s unprecedented challenges during Antiquity with 1 million inhabitants and how a refined structure helped overcome the barriers in housing, water supply, transportation, entertainment, and other aspects.
But it is not a surprise that this historical documentary is quite slow-paced, as it keeps spinning around the building structure followed by the architects during the time. From monuments, stadiums, and roads to water systems and harbors, it reflects on the exceptional model that contributed to Roman urbanisation over the years.
In its nearly 50-minute run, it is heavily focused on the technical and architectural jargons to evaluate the ancient structure with virtual modelling. Hence, making it a tedious task for viewers who aren’t familiar with Roman history or archaeology.
Despite its flaws in terms of pacing and convoluted plot, the docufilm aims for a creative scope and somewhat hits the target with astonishing precision that brings the ancient designs to life. The historically accurate voice-over narration is also commendable as it communicates with the audience by blending perfectly with the panoramic view.
Overall, the documentary provides a broad overview of the history of ancient Rome and gives a fresh perspective with graphic designs, survey campaigns, virtual modelisation and advanced technology.
It offers a precise view of the archaeological discoveries and mysteries of Rome and analyzes them using reconstruction via advanced technology like virtual reality. Despite birds’-eye view shots and a bit of dramatization to boost the imagination of the viewers, the documentary fails to resonate by falling short of perspectives and luster.
Destination Ancient Rome Verdict
The documentary is a captivating watch for history enthusiasts as it takes you back in time to explore the mysteries of 3rd and 4th century Rome. However, if you’re not an avid history fan, then it may seem like a tedious watch despite dramatization and narration. Even the artistic vision becomes heavy with technical terms focused on the archeology and the ingenuity of Romans. Thus, making it skippable.
Destination Ancient Rome is currently streaming on DocuBay and OTTplay Premium.