Led by Anthony Hopkins as the title character, the cast of this media adaptation was outstanding. But Shakespeare's play was so truncated that the result was the Cliff's Notes version of "King Lear."

It is not clear why the filmmakers wanted to cut the play so severely. The long speeches were abbreviated with the apparent goal of capturing the principal narrative. But the result was that the character developments suffered.

One of the main problems was in the portraits of Goneril and Regan, the two greedy daughters of Lear. By eliminating so much of the dialogue, there was only a sketchy portrayal of the two characters. In the early part of the film, both Goneril and Regan were sympathetic in light of the boorish behavior of their old father, his grubby one hundred retainers, and a brood of dogs. Then, with insufficient motivation and exposition, the two sisters turned instantly into studies in evil.

While the concept of the film was an updated modern setting for Shakespeare's pre-Christian, the effects seemed gimmicky. There was not enough of a pretext for France to be invading Great Britain in the twenty-first century, due to a falling out of the old king and his daughters. The visuals, including bombs dropping and battalions marching on the streets overwhelmed the language. The best scenes were the quiet moments, such as the opening scene where Lear fatefully divides his kingdom and the later reunion of Lear and Cordelia.

It is unfortunate that there is not a "director's cut" version of this film that adds an extra two hours of dialogue necessary to do justice to Shakespeare's masterful tragedy.

Really did want to like this version of 'King Lear' more. The play itself is wonderful, very haunting and moving even if the titular character frustrates you at first (but one does grow to sympathise with him). Richard Eyre has done a fair share of interesting and well done theatre, film and television productions and is no stranger to Shakespeare, being director of the brilliant 'The Hollow Crown' adaptations of both 'Henry IV' parts. And of course the cast is a dream one.

'King Lear' (2018) has a lot of great things about it, but in my mind it didn't completely come together. It does laudably with a difficult play, but is rather uneven. As the cast are great and all give great performances in their own way, the atmosphere is strong and there are many memorable scenes and interactions. The truncations do hurt the pacing and storytelling sadly and quite badly and this is not one of Eyre's better overall directing efforts.

Lets start with the good things. The best thing about this 'King Lear' is the acting, which is very good to superb throughout in all the roles. Antony Hopkins mesmerises as Lear, showing poignant tragedy and titanic, near-histrionic fury in equal measure in a way that is intense, noble and affecting. Emma Thompson is a suitably venomous Goneril and Emily Watson was never this blood-thirsty, manipulative or deceptively caring. Jim Broadbent is tremendously powerful as Gloucester. Florence Pugh is very touching without being passive as Cordelia and John MacMillan is effectively creepy as Edmund. Very interesting portrayal of the Fool, not overplayed or annoying thankfully. The character interaction is also strongly handled, especially between Lear and Cordelia.

Enough of the production values are fine, the austerity of the setting and costumes suits the atmosphere of the story perfectly as it is an austere play without going too over the top in it. Steven Warbeck's score is haunting. Shakespeare's text is still complex emotionally and sheer poetry, it is a shame though that it is so heavily abridged. The story is compelling enough and has some great moments, the big scene between Lear and Cordelia brought tears to my eyes and the film has one of the most unsettling renditions of the gouging of the eyes scene.

However, there are quite a number of glaring flaws. The text is heavily abridged and with so much cut out the pacing and story suffer. As does some of the character writing. The pacing feels very rushed frequently and the story feels choppy and regularly confuses, even for somebody who is familiar with the play so goodness knows how those that are not would feel. A shame as there are scenes that are done very well, especially those aforementioned.

Furthermore, not all the characters are done justice. Lear, Cordelia and Gloucester are. Less successful in particular are Edmund and Regan, though as indicated they are both played excellently. Edmund is very sketchily written with underdeveloped motivations and Regan is not enough of the seemingly sympathetic and "we can trust her" character one thinks she is at first but comes over as manipulative and all round evil from the start. Eyre's direction has enough flashes of brilliance, but tends to be too heavy-handed. Some of the camerawork veers on gimmicky.

In conclusion, a lot to like but some big drawbacks too. Frustratingly uneven. 6/10.

I love Shakespeare. I am extremely grateful to Amazon for investing their money in Shakespeare rather than spending it on an obscure comic book character and/or some random pop culture IP that should not be rebooted. Anthony Hopkins is incredible as King Lear. The production values are fantastic. The only thing I have a problem with are the misguided idiots in the review section who feel like slapping the hand of their patron. Shakespeare, above all, knew the importance of patrons.