The Magic Flute

No magic rings? A magic flute? If you liked "The Lord of the Rings" and "Moulin Rouge", you might like "The Magic Flute". The music and the landscapes are beautiful. The singers look strangely like real people, since they are opera singers, not Hollywood actors. There's a war, but not a lot of blood because everybody's singing most of the time. Why not a fantasy without orcs? Why not a story without a lot of video game battles and trials? There are some female characters, more than you usually see in a fantasy. When the Queen of the Night threatens with all her powers, there are some great moments. Although the lyrics are sometimes difficult to hear, the overall feeling is fun and uplifting. Unfortunately, it only lasts two hours.

A man behind me commented at the end, 'What a bizarre idea', which I suppose it was, if he was expecting a filmed version of the staged opera. What we get, however, is a proper movie, with all the tricks and all the realism that can offer. The plot is - always was - nonsense, which suits this semi-fantastic treatment perfectly. Branaugh uses his CGI with drama and humour as well as the poignancy of the First World War to hold the story together. The principals were ideal - they looked right as well as sounding perfect. Papageno was a comic delight. Liz Smith - not a singing role - was enjoying herself as much as the audience where I saw the film enjoyed her. The singing would be enough to hold an audience on its own.

When a soldier is near-fatally wounded in battle, he is recovered by three women and wakes to find himself in a strange land. Here he sees a beautiful woman that he is instantly besotted with. However when he learns that the woman has been kidnapped by the evil Queen of the Night, he sets out with a new companion to rescue her.

OK so this flopped in the cinemas but did anyone expect otherwise? Branagh may have sold Shakespeare to the masses but opera is not as generally accepted as an art form; most of us see Shakespeare as of value (even if we never go to the theatre) but yet things like opera and ballet still have the air of snobbery about them. Despite this though I was interested in this enough to put it on my rental list. Coming to it to see what it offers me helped me I think because I was in the middle of two extremes that I think reject this film. On one hand we have those that reject the film for being opera and hard to follow. On the other hand are those that cannot believe the opera has been "sullied". The truth for me is somewhere in the middle because the film is not as good as it could have been but is not a failure either.

The music is the selling point of course and Mozart is treated well with really well delivered music throughout. To the untrained ear it contains recognisable emotion and beauty and it was this that held me. Juts as well really because the plot is hard to follow – something I found strange from the man who has delivered Shakespeare with such clarity and accessibility. The lyrics may be English but many of them are rendered almost indecipherable by the nature of the singing. This doesn't affect the music but it does affect the story-telling and makes it almost easier to listen to than watch at times. This isn't ever totally true though because Branagh does do the best he can with a limited budget. His sets and effects have a consistently "unreal" quality which feels like a cross between a film and a filmed opera. Sometimes it gets a bit tiresome (too many elevated/elevating shots) but mostly it works.

The cast are all OK: really good in regards giving "stage" performances but on film it doesn't totally work and mostly they add to the feeling of watching a stage performance through a camera. This isn't a fantastic film by any means then, but it is not a deserving flop either. Instead it is an interesting attempt at something different that has strengths in the music and creativity but never really engaged me beyond the superficial trimmings.

This is, if I counted correctly, the twelfth version of the Magic Flute to appear on film; this opera is now in the same category of classic as Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet. I enjoyed it; it's just not a great version of Mozart's most beautiful opera. Having to follow Bergman's classic version of 1975 when he doesn't have Bergman's genius must have been a little nightmarish for Branagh. The First World War setting does nothing for our understanding of the opera's meaning: Sarastro is turned into a kind of apostle of peace amid the chaos and destruction of war, sort of a New Age Jesus. The Masonic symbolism is missing, Monostatos's part becomes pointless, there is very little theatricality in the production (strange when you think of Branagh's Shakespeare films, especially Hamlet).

The singers are almost all young and fresh. Benjamin Jay Davis impressed me as Papageno, Silvia Moi was pert as Papagena, and Lyubov Petrova was really hard-edged and fierce looking as the Queen of the Night. The Chamber Orchestra of Europe under James Conlon provided much of my pleasure.

With stunning Mozart music and fabulous acting, "The Magic Flute" makes up to be a very unusual film. The plot is rather hard to understand and there are constantly weird going ons to intrigue and surprise. This film is for anyone who likes opera, otherwise this film is not nearly so enjoyable. Though this is surreal and usually ununderstanable, the music and characters interwoven make up splendidly,

The story is basically what is most likely Mozart's opera, except it is set in the First World War. A young man is saved from death by three angel-like women and finds himself in a place he doesn't recognise, ruled by a mysterious queen called The Queen of the Night. In this new world the young man looks at a photograph of a beautiful woman and instantly falls in love with her. He learns that the woman has been kidnapped and with a birdman, sets out to rescue her.

Recommended to opera lovers and people who like weird films aged nine and upwards! Enjoy "The Magic Flute"! :-)