I like that this version trusts Shakespeare, I mean: it is full. For example, such character as Fortinbras is not deleted as in many other adaptations - the guy who, after everyone in Elsinore killed each other, is going to be elected as the Danish king. Because among other things, Hamlet is a story of the power change.
The viewer who survives all the 4 hours of monologues and dialogues can feel how it was in the Shakespeare's theatre.
However, my impression is that Branagh as a director does not know what to do with some lines (and some characters like Horatio). While the other showrunners cut away many fragments to make Hamlet a trite romantic boy, he merely saturates the movie with sex, violence, noise, hysteria, etc.
Sometimes it works well when it doesn't contradict the plot. Really, Shakespeare's tragedy is not a 12+ fairy tail. To Be or not to Be is clever here: he speaks about the bodkin and frightens eavesdroppers with it. Bingo.
Sometimes this kaboom looks amusing but senseless, as in the very first scene when one guardian shouting madly falls on the other. Why using fireworks in the scene with the ghost? Why making Ofelia a woman of easy virtue from the very beginning? And so on.
So, for me the movie looks like a combination of better and worse scenes.
The viewer who survives all the 4 hours of monologues and dialogues can feel how it was in the Shakespeare's theatre.
However, my impression is that Branagh as a director does not know what to do with some lines (and some characters like Horatio). While the other showrunners cut away many fragments to make Hamlet a trite romantic boy, he merely saturates the movie with sex, violence, noise, hysteria, etc.
Sometimes it works well when it doesn't contradict the plot. Really, Shakespeare's tragedy is not a 12+ fairy tail. To Be or not to Be is clever here: he speaks about the bodkin and frightens eavesdroppers with it. Bingo.
Sometimes this kaboom looks amusing but senseless, as in the very first scene when one guardian shouting madly falls on the other. Why using fireworks in the scene with the ghost? Why making Ofelia a woman of easy virtue from the very beginning? And so on.
So, for me the movie looks like a combination of better and worse scenes.