I'm a huge fan of Mads Mikkelsen (The Hunt, A Royal Affair and Hannibal especially) which is why I wanted to see this movie. Mikkelsen has a good performance in this though I think his character was written to be a bit too understated and calm for him to truly shine here. I didn't quite feel his character here. I haven't read the novel but when you adapt books into movies, you're allowed to make changes in order to make it work as a movie. The baron didn't really have a presence also which isn't a good thing when he's supposed to be the movie's antagonist.
This movie is sort of a mixed bag. The scenery and the sets were quite breathtaking. Cinematography was stunning at times but it also often went too artsy which made it hard to see what was going on and in the end made the scenes ineffective. The music was decently atmospheric but nothing memorable or mind-blowing.
A lot of important stuff seemed to just happen off screen. How did Kohlhaas gather his army? Was he a charismatic and popular speaker who convinced people to join his cause? Had his troops themselves suffered injustices? Who was that woman in the abbey and why was she protecting the baron? Why did Kohlhaas' troops go there, shoot some flaming arrows and leave immediately after? What were they trying to accomplish there? Why was the Governor protecting that slimebag baron when he was shown to be a friend of Kohlhaas' in the beginning? The motivation of many of the characters remained in the dark. It's hard to get emotionally involved in scenes where you're completely baffled at what's going on because the movie just jumps from place to place without any explanation.
All in all, I found the editing to be quite perplexing which makes the pacing of the movie feel rather slow. There's no real force or energy running through the movie and eventually it just sort of fizzles out. In the end, there's just too many things that didn't work for me and the movie simply wasn't exciting or engaging to watch. Mads Mikkelsen makes watching this movie bearable but even he can't save this one.
This movie is sort of a mixed bag. The scenery and the sets were quite breathtaking. Cinematography was stunning at times but it also often went too artsy which made it hard to see what was going on and in the end made the scenes ineffective. The music was decently atmospheric but nothing memorable or mind-blowing.
A lot of important stuff seemed to just happen off screen. How did Kohlhaas gather his army? Was he a charismatic and popular speaker who convinced people to join his cause? Had his troops themselves suffered injustices? Who was that woman in the abbey and why was she protecting the baron? Why did Kohlhaas' troops go there, shoot some flaming arrows and leave immediately after? What were they trying to accomplish there? Why was the Governor protecting that slimebag baron when he was shown to be a friend of Kohlhaas' in the beginning? The motivation of many of the characters remained in the dark. It's hard to get emotionally involved in scenes where you're completely baffled at what's going on because the movie just jumps from place to place without any explanation.
All in all, I found the editing to be quite perplexing which makes the pacing of the movie feel rather slow. There's no real force or energy running through the movie and eventually it just sort of fizzles out. In the end, there's just too many things that didn't work for me and the movie simply wasn't exciting or engaging to watch. Mads Mikkelsen makes watching this movie bearable but even he can't save this one.