Medieval

Instead, it felt generic, rushed with over emphasis on fighting. This is a true story, based on real events and real people. We have the historical data on all of them yet in the movie, they are vaguely mentioned in intro and outro credits.

The in between or the movie itself is a random series of fights between groups that are not developed well; we feel no emphathy for them, nor do we even know who they are. The movie is also not historically accurate in terms of setting, mannerism, props. It is just generic medieval fighting movie with a backstory that the viewer has to create in their mind as they watch. If you do that, it becomes better sure, but on its own, as a movie as presented, it lacks a lot.

The events this attempts to cover are pivotal for the time and could have easily been on the level of development we saw in braveheart and gladiator; but alas they opted for shallowness. Acting is not great, not bad but not great, acceptable at best. If it were not based on the true events it attempts to cover, it would have stood better for what it was. Unfortunately the creators trying to make it real life historical completely bombed the pooch here. There was no need for it because there is no history in this movie; none, at all. I guess they felt it added extra importance to the movie by telling us who it was about and what events it tried to convey but that's about it. Few lines on the screen that do not match what we saw, do not a historical movie make.

It is watchable, just highly disappointing, having ruined such an amazing potential story. I understand it is difficult to properly convey things so far back in history where records were so vague about a lot of things, however look at how other movies approached it. This simply does not even feel in the right time period. It feels a lot like generic sword fight at your local fair ground. Granted the fighting was not horrible but again, without any other context being done proper, it just becomes a generic sword fight movie.

Medieval is helped by a restrained yet captivating performance from Ben Foster. Even better is the production design and costumes; it's a very good-looking, immersive, realistic production.

It's a film that has some impressive moments of intense action and several compelling scenes. But the film can't help but crumble under the weight of its convoluted storytelling.

The plot revolves around a soldier caught in the midst of the political scheming between two brothers who seek to be emperor, and how he and those he leads are forced to suffer the consequences of their scheming.

When I put it that way, it sounds simple; but that's not how it plays out on screen.

The films does a lamentably poor job of establishing its multiple antagonists and their respective loyalties, motivations, and especially how they seek to achieve their goals.

This is largely due in part to an absurd amount of name-dropping that gets difficult to follow. There are certain characters whose names are crucial to the plot but these characters themselves are rarely, and sometimes never, seen.

It's unclear what role everyone is playing in the story because there are so many people to keep track of and the script doesn't properly develop any of them.

Not even the action is particularly exciting. It's mostly clumsily filmed and opaquely edited, leaving the impact of every sword swing and arrow pierce off screen. It's action without weight or a sense of significance.

By the end of the movie, I felt nothing, because the story concludes without anything of note having changed for either the characters or for the political situation we've been following.

It's a largely dull experience without clear stakes and without clear goals and without any meaningful depth of character or theme.

I see why there was virtually no marketing for this whatsoever.

If you like films about the Middle Ages, then this one is worth the watch. Yes, it is much like other films in this genre (blood and guts and a little bit of a love story), but the director did a great job with angles and sequence and speed. Being based on true events, the storyline in Medieval is unique, as well. Ben Foster leads the film well, and the supporting cast, especially Sophie Lowe and Michael Caine do a nice job. It's not a movie that I will watch over and over again, but it was well worth the watch in the theater, and I'm sure I will watch it at least one more time when it hits the digital market.

There's little effective pretense even though the movie attempts to give some backstory in the first few minutes. This movie will be much more substantial and meaningful to the informed viewers. I initially agreed that the graphic violence was excessive but after researching the man and his exploits on the battlefield, the gore could've gone even farther...

Foster gives a solid performance as Jan Zizka and Sophie Lowe was exceptional as the amiable, loyal and fiercely courageous, Princess Catherine. The Score and Cinematography are both beautifully revealed characters unto themselves.

Medieval isn't 'Gladiator' and doesn't try to be.

It's a stand alone Biographical Account of one of history's greatest military minds. The movie does well with slightly over 2 hours but could easily have been made into a miniseries or multi-part movie(only a small pivotal point of his life is conveyed in the movie). Some may disagree but as a fan of History this is a story that needed to be told, and told in its graphic realism.

There's a couple early hiccups in the dialogue but otherwise it's fairly well written and flows evenly after a lagging beginning. Medieval is a solid 70/100.

Since two decades now, medieval movies from Europe, Eastern Europe are galore, more gruesome one than the other, huge budgets for huge craps most of the time, available mainly un streaming platforms. Most of those lousy productions bet only on gruesome battles, bloody, brutal, battle scenes, where cruelty is the main word. Besides this, nothing at all, bad directing and I don't even speak of the acting. This one is from Czech Republic but seems to be co produced with UK film industry; it is spoken in English and stars Ben Foster and Michael Caine. So, it won't be a surprise if I say it is not for the sissies, it is bloody, with man details concerning meat chopper fight sequences. But the story is not that bad for such a film, not that bad. However, it will never make me forget THE WARLORD, starring Chuck Heston; FLESH AND BLOOD from director Paul Verhoeven, or any Ridley Scott's movie for this scheme.