Empire has never before seen filmmaking on this scale. This is indisputably jaw-dropping. Huge. And it's no boast to say that to witness such a spectacle is a precious rarity in the early 21st century. This stadium set-piece is more reminiscent of the genuine cast-of-thousands era of Ben-Hur — and we're thinking as much of the 1925 version as William Wyler's Chuck Heston-fronted '59 one. These days we're more used to scale segments built on studio lots or in cavernous, green-walled soundstages with digitally cloned CG extras in the stalls. It's funny how for years we were all so impressed by Hollywood's new digital, reality-replicating flourishes when, all along, they were nowhere near as extraordinary as, well, reality. Nobody makes movies like this anymore. Or rather, nobody else...