Hamlet
has to be the only Shakespeare play that I have actually enjoyed reading.
Unlike his other plays, I was actually able to follow along and understand what
was happening, when usually I would have been lost. As Mrs. Watkins said “Shakespeare’s
plays were meant to be performed not read.” Watching the movie while we read, allowed
us to visualize the play in the way it was meant to be seen. This along with
discussing what we watched helped a lot. It personally helped me to appreciate
the story instead of spending hours carelessly reading words I couldn’t comprehend.
In the
movie, I liked the characters, but I felt as though Hamlet was a little too
emotional. Even in his soliloquies, he seemed to over dramatize everything and
would talk so fast that sometimes you couldn’t even tell what he was talking
about. I don’t know if that was Kenneth Branagh’s interpretation of Hamlet or
if he just really got into his acting. Either way, it kind of annoyed me and
had me laughing when he was trying to give a serious speech. However, I did
like this interpretation of the play.The story had twists that surprised me and kept me interested. The best scene was definitely the fencing match where everyone died. Throughout the whole movie, I couldn’t stand Claudius and couldn’t wait for Hamlet to finally kill him. I was really mad at the scene when Hamlet could have killed Claudius but he didn’t. From the beginning I couldn’t stand Claudius and for Hamlet to let him live drove me crazy. Not only did he allow his father’s murderer to live, but also doomed himself (along with everyone else). The only good thing that came from the waiting to kill Claudius is the death of Polonius, who was clueless and almost as bad as Claudius.
After watching Hamlet, I definitely appreciate Shakespeare’s ability to capture human characteristics. Though the characters of his play are placed in situations which we cannot relate to, they are given qualities that relate them to people in our lives. Through most of his plays I’ve read the story just wanting to get it over with, but in this story I can actually this. Overall, I liked Hamlet both the book and movie.
