This review focuses on Macbeth, but will also contain my criticism of Shakespeare's works as a whole.
Shakespeare makes rational men mad and the greatest of critics weak kneed and fawning. The man is the foremost writer of the english language, and we consider his works to be on the same level as the greats of today. But I ask you this? Why. The mans work had flaws that any other author would be called on. If we excuse that with, "He was from the 1600s" we insult the man. He can't be the best of all time and a product of his.
Now, the work in question. Macbeth is introduced as an honorable, worthy and good guy. What the hell happened? The excuse of his wife's nagging loses its punch after he locks her out of his schemes. Character Development you say. Well there's a difference between that and Macbeth, one scene he feels guilty, next he starts calling upon Satan and murdering peoples families for shits and giggles. If this play had some intervals between these events I would have bought it, but the play jumps ahead so fast that its like they have seven identical brothers with completely different personalities.
Shakespeare does have some excellent lines that make up for the flaws in characters, but for every brilliant soliloquy he puts in you have one guy saying, "I am slain." And that line came after a fairly charming interaction between that character and his mother.
Ah, what about the characters themselves, they may have changed, but if you care about them, every thing is fixed, right? Well, Shakespeare did succeed, I liked Macbeth, I liked Lady Macbeth, I wanted them to win, I found Duncan to be an incompetent loser whose death would benefit scotland. This made the poor writing all the worse. I wanted the cool, conflicted Macbeth back, I wanted him to achieve victory over their dull and flat enemies. But instead of making an Anti Villain Shakespeare decided to throw him off the slippery slope to save himself the trouble of making the work complex at all.
Theatre Glimpses of genius marred by inconsistent writing and poor characterization
This review focuses on Macbeth, but will also contain my criticism of Shakespeare's works as a whole.
Shakespeare makes rational men mad and the greatest of critics weak kneed and fawning. The man is the foremost writer of the english language, and we consider his works to be on the same level as the greats of today. But I ask you this? Why. The mans work had flaws that any other author would be called on. If we excuse that with, "He was from the 1600s" we insult the man. He can't be the best of all time and a product of his.
Now, the work in question. Macbeth is introduced as an honorable, worthy and good guy. What the hell happened? The excuse of his wife's nagging loses its punch after he locks her out of his schemes. Character Development you say. Well there's a difference between that and Macbeth, one scene he feels guilty, next he starts calling upon Satan and murdering peoples families for shits and giggles. If this play had some intervals between these events I would have bought it, but the play jumps ahead so fast that its like they have seven identical brothers with completely different personalities.
Shakespeare does have some excellent lines that make up for the flaws in characters, but for every brilliant soliloquy he puts in you have one guy saying, "I am slain." And that line came after a fairly charming interaction between that character and his mother.
The plot is simple and the Aesop is dull and cliche, Ambition Is Evil. And the editing is simply awful. Macbeth is full of disappearing characters and dropped plotlines.
Ah, what about the characters themselves, they may have changed, but if you care about them, every thing is fixed, right? Well, Shakespeare did succeed, I liked Macbeth, I liked Lady Macbeth, I wanted them to win, I found Duncan to be an incompetent loser whose death would benefit scotland. This made the poor writing all the worse. I wanted the cool, conflicted Macbeth back, I wanted him to achieve victory over their dull and flat enemies. But instead of making an Anti Villain Shakespeare decided to throw him off the slippery slope to save himself the trouble of making the work complex at all.
P.S I'm not a troll, so don't accuse me of such.