POSITIVES:
1) The film looks and sounds superb. The direction, set design, sound design etc are all brilliant and deserve awards recognition. Filming in black and white added a lot too I thought 2) The film is haunting. The scenes featuring the three witches will stay with me for a long time; and the repetitive thudding of blood dropping on the floor or trees smacking against the window was very impactful. The black and white colour palette added to the haunting nature of the film too 3) I think the three leads of Washington, McDormand and Gleeson are all terrific. I've seen Washington getting some criticism for the way he reads Shakespeare but I thought he was near flawless here and his soliloquies are some of the highlights of the film
NEGATIVES:
1) I think the film struggles to ever make you feel like you're not just watching a stage play. The Justin Kurzel film did a much better job of feeling like a film rather than a play. Also, the fact that the Kurzel film is still so fresh in the memory makes this film feel a bit unnecessary 2) While the three leads were great, other members of the cast didn't perform as well in my opinion. Corey Hawkins comes to mind as one that seemed to stick out like a sore thumb 3) The film is quite quiet and without a score for large portions, certainly in the first half. Some of those sections left me struggling to stay engaged 4) It's difficult to explain why, but a lot of the character interactions felt awkward to me, and not in a deliberate or good way. I don't know why but it just really stuck out to me that a lot of interactions felt awkward and uncomfortable. That's part of the reason why Washington's soliloquies were such a positive highlight for me.
1) The film looks and sounds superb. The direction, set design, sound design etc are all brilliant and deserve awards recognition. Filming in black and white added a lot too I thought 2) The film is haunting. The scenes featuring the three witches will stay with me for a long time; and the repetitive thudding of blood dropping on the floor or trees smacking against the window was very impactful. The black and white colour palette added to the haunting nature of the film too 3) I think the three leads of Washington, McDormand and Gleeson are all terrific. I've seen Washington getting some criticism for the way he reads Shakespeare but I thought he was near flawless here and his soliloquies are some of the highlights of the film
NEGATIVES:
1) I think the film struggles to ever make you feel like you're not just watching a stage play. The Justin Kurzel film did a much better job of feeling like a film rather than a play. Also, the fact that the Kurzel film is still so fresh in the memory makes this film feel a bit unnecessary 2) While the three leads were great, other members of the cast didn't perform as well in my opinion. Corey Hawkins comes to mind as one that seemed to stick out like a sore thumb 3) The film is quite quiet and without a score for large portions, certainly in the first half. Some of those sections left me struggling to stay engaged 4) It's difficult to explain why, but a lot of the character interactions felt awkward to me, and not in a deliberate or good way. I don't know why but it just really stuck out to me that a lot of interactions felt awkward and uncomfortable. That's part of the reason why Washington's soliloquies were such a positive highlight for me.