The Tempest (2010)

If I am totally honest - this film was stretched. I’m not sure how this can be a 3 hour play if an hour and a half movie felt long. The film didn’t work as it had no originality that separates it from earlier adaptations or the theatre.

The story itself was usual enough; the same as anything on the stage: Prospero, Duke of Milan, (the protagonist) overturned by his brother and banished to an island, him shipwrecking them on his island years later and them getting separated.

I have to have pity on this film though as because it is a well known piece of literature unlike other adaptations such as Blade Runner (bet you haven’t read the book!) i think the director (Julie Taymor) felt the need to keep the plot in line with the play which stopped it from reaching its full potential as a film. The first 1 hour and 10 minutes were really, in fairness, true to the play but really dull and the dialog wasn’t even that interesting. It could of been better if maybe their was some comedy in it to make it easier watch before the last 20 minutes felt a bit like it went on a Russian athlete’s diet compared to the rest of the film.

The film made good use of all the highly sophisticated technology such as CGI that can’t be used on the stage but why only use them in the last 20 minutes it felt like they were making the film, an hour and 10 minutes through when somebody said:

“Hey I got some special effects we forgot about until now, should we try and cram them all in to the last 20 minutes and hope for the best?”

On the brighter side of the film the adaptation onto the screen worked quite well for die-hard fans of Shakespeare unlike Tomb Raider which was criticised by its fans for having its main feature of the plot (won’t say what it is in case you haven’t seen yet) based around something completely irrelevant to its video game that it was based upon.

The colour of the characters clothing - grey and black - nicely reflected the characters negative moral due to the the grieving of the supposed likely death of Ferdinand. The island seemed to have many different biomes each one reflecting that current mood. In the dessert Trinculo and Stephano were in a joyful mood as oranges and yellows are bright colours that have connotations with happiness. In the scene where Ariel imitates Trinculo and a fight nearly breaks out they are in a Black Forest and black has connotations with evil

I would not recommend this film to anyone unless you have enjoyed the play or Shakespeare or don’t have anything better to do with your life.