Macbeth (3 Stars)

This film, a big screen adaptation of Shakespeare's famous play "Macbeth", is the biggest disappointment I've experienced in the cinema this year. The trailers looked so spectacular, and Michael Fassbender is an excellent actor who has impressed me ever since I first saw him in the TV series "Hex".

The overall impression that I had was that the film was incomprehensible. The only reason that I understood it was that I already knew the play well. I knew the plot, and my previous knowledge told me what was happening. What I saw on screen was no help. The picture is too dark for most of the film. Since all the men in the film have dark hair and beards, it was often difficult to distinguish them in the dark lighting. The woman sitting next to me in the cinema whispered to me a few times, "Is that Macbeth?" I wasn't always able to give her an answer. As a friend pointed out after the film, the trailer is different. The colours and visibility in the trailer are perfect. Why couldn't they have done that to the film as well?

Another problem is that the dialogue was often muttered. Maybe that was a problem of my cinema. If they had turned the volume up it would have been easier to understand.

It's a great story. After all, it's Shakespeare. Good acting by the main characters. The cinematography is good, apart from being too dark. I saw the play in the theatre last year. Despite being an avant garde performance, it was far superior.