Too much of everything

best movie i've ever seen.

Absolutely Brilliant!

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Based on the 1791 opera "Die Zauberflöte" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, this is certainly a well made film but I can't say that I particularly enjoyed it. As far as opera is concerned, I am a complete philistine and this film did not nothing to change that, I'm afraid. I had never seen a full one on stage or on screen before this film and I am not inclined to watch another one after this. It felt far, far longer than two hours. As with Richard Attenborough's worst film "A Chorus Line", I would never have watched the film if it had been made by one of my favourite directors, in this case Kenneth Branagh. His skill as a director is in evidence throughout the film, most notably the uninterrupted and extremely complex six minute take, and the decision to set it against the backdrop of the First World War was an interesting one but there was little else than I enjoyed about it. The singing was excellent but it was rather overwhelming since it accounted for almost the entire running time. Having just finished the film, I am pretty exhausted, to be frank.Overall, it is not a bad film by any means but it was just not to my personal tastes at all. Hey, at least I can say that I gave opera a try! That box is ticked now. This is without a doubt my least favourite film directed by Branagh.

I think it's sad that this movie got such a low IMDb grade. I just wanted to say that this film is not for people who has an abc list of criteria each film has to fulfill to be a "good" film.I do not watch much TV and film, and it's getting even less as I've started to work in the business myself.This movie is for people like me, who've seen enough to see they need something different. AND it's for Magic Flute fans. I you don't like things being different or Mozart, you won't like this film either.But IF you like Mozart and things that are different (call it "original" if you'd like). Then this is a MUST SEE. Branaugh has captured ALL the important details i this movie, and by IMPORTANT I don't mean whether the coloratura can hit the F sharp in a special way. I mean captured the true FEEL of the original play.The libretto is silly and full of love, so is this movie. I've seen so many different versions of the opera, but only in this film have I seen truly fitting singers in the different roles. Most casts have a dull Tamino -> in this he's brilliant. Pamina is brilliant. Papageno is brilliant.Mozart would be proud of himself and the performers and Branaugh if he'd watched it. Congratulations!

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"! :-)

It's a sad fact but the libretto of Die Zauberfloete is quite... weak. This film has done the amazing achievement of lifting up the story line and making in it not only beautiful in music and decors, but also interesting to follow and understandable! Chapeau. What a great movie. The Papageno-Papagena sound at the end is a masterpiece and is a perfect capture of the theme behind the scene. It's uplifting and joyful, and the voices are perfectly acceptable to very good. It's at the same pleasure level as La Traviatta of Franco Zefirelli. And I have to say it takes guts to revisit this story with a WW1 theme and achieving such a nice result.