Medieval

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.

I didn't have much expectation heading into this, I just generally love watching medieval films and series purely for the gore; I think watching people wage war with spears, battle axes, maces and swords is much more thrilling than gun fights, still love them though.

Straight from the start it reminded me of History's Vikings tv series, if you're a fan of that you might love this as well. I didn't know it's a true story. There wasn't as much character development but I think they didn't have time for that, it focuses more on the story and that was enough to get you invested in the characters by the end. The acting was splendid by the whole cast. A little sad because I have a feeling the movie won't get the recognition it deserves. I think it's better than The Northman in the sense it's paced better and has more story in my opinion, cinematography might not be as great but still pretty good. The fights were amazing and bloody but I thought some gory scenes weren't shown to us, we just get to see the aftermath especially in the first half. There was a lot at stake and I love how you never really know who's gonna make it especially in the third act.

In the end I love it and remembering these are true events really made the emotional end to it even more heartfelt. Fun watch on the big screens if you're a fan of watching medieval knights bang steel slice through skulls like piñatas. Movies based in the dark era aren't always to everyone's taste but I hope this doesn't go under the radar and people get to enjoy it.

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.

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.

Unlike most of the negative low ratings against this movie that almost made me decide to not viewing it and, even when I finally decided to give it a try, my expectation was still not quite high enough to give it a full shot. But this movie turned out to be pretty good actually. Yes, this movie got a serious audio and soundtrack problems. The dialog between or among the characters sometimes was too low or too vague to be heard clearly, and most of the time was blocked by the annoying loud soundtrack which supposedly should be in the background and subtle enough to support the ongoing of the story, but sadly, the music often played too loud and over-the-top dominant over the scenes, and lot of times too religiously annoying. It also made me wonder if the production team hired a qualified enough audio professional group to handle the recording or microphone. It seems that there were lot of times, the microphone was placed either too far away or too high to record the characters dialog so that always ended up either too vague or too low to be heard clearly. The crew who took care of the audio part of this movie should never be hired by any other movie makers in case to cause the similar problems.

There are so many negative reviews against this movie, but to me, it's a decent and seriously made one, at least worth watching once for your time and money. Ben Foster did a very good job, but the screenplay didn't give him too much to develop and show the character he played. Michael Caine also faithfully did his part, even it's such a weightless role. Sophie Lowe also acted well for her tragic role in this movie, but luckily, her character was much well developed as the storyline went on.

The fighting scenes are well arranged, brutal, bloody and realistic enough to make you cringe sometimes. Again, the faulty audio almost ruined everything!