Dan Jones

This film had the potential to be something great. The film was predictable, repetitive and was severely lacking in character development. I literally felt like I watched the same movie 3 times. I was never truly immersed in the story nor was I attached to a single character in this film. However; the costume designs, sets, and the cinematography did a great job of depicting the time period. Constructive criticism: The solution is simple. Show the actual court scene in real time instead of making the audience watch slightly different versions of the same scenes three times, especially because they offered little to no significance to the plot. The rape scene didn't need to be shown more than once differing with nuance in place of just allowing the audience to hear the actual testimonies of Jean, Jacques, and Marguerite. This would have given more time for the audience to better understand the actions and dialogue of the characters as well as the politics of what was actually going on in medieval France. The Caroline War and the second phase of the Hundred Years War between France and England was going on in the background but the audience was never clued in on any of the events taking place. The economic effects of the black death were discussed and could have been used to build some novelty about the wonderfully portrayed agrarian society and its importance.

Princess Mononoke is the single greatest animated movie of all time. A fantastic story with an important message. The hand drawn animation is second to none and has a beautiful soundtrack.

Before I express my opinion on the brilliance of this film I must say that historical fiction is one of my favorite entertainment genres and does influence why I love this movie adaptation so much. With that said, this movie has everything and is definitely one of my personal favorites. It's hands down the most epic revenge tale of all time. For those that have read the book the movie is different but everything that was added or changed actually made the movie even better in my opinion. The choice of cast members was fantastic and paired really well with the alternate ending that slightly deviated from the book in a very refreshing way that will leave you incredibly satisfied.