Glad to know I'm not the only one who thought it all was rushed! When I watched the film (in the cinema, and even now I don't know why I went because nobody at my house had read the books, I still haven't) I liked it but I remember that I didn't understand a lot of things, because everything happened so fast and they put together more books that they should have, in my opinion.
I can't comment more because I don't remember it that well, but about cardenal Bocanegra, I had read a comic book about the first one of the saga (I have the book to read yet) and it was a man, so I suppose I was surprised to see a woman! Not sure what happened to her, but I think it was Blanca Portillo, who is a really impressive and good actress (she used to direct the Roman theatre festival of Merida, and her performaces were always so celebrated), so she was probably a very good option. And Viggo was superb, I recall (and I love that he loves Spain and he even has got a house here and talks Spanish and all that <3)
Bocanegra was supposed to be an eunuch, so I was positively surprised they cast a woman and not just an effeminate guy.
They really did try to cram in too many books; following the plot of just one would've been much better. There were way too many starts and stops and it was such a shame because it was such a huge big-budget movie--all that money was wasted on a messy end result. The books are pretty entertaining (although I stopped reading after The Man In the Yellow Doublet because it all got a bit samey and it was getting too patriotic and all the women were always evil, as if Perez-Reverte had run out of ideas). But yeah. It's a shame because there isn't enough cool 17th century entertainment out there anyway, even if it's right up there with medieval Persia as my favourite historical period. At least there are still some cool Musketeer things and By The Sword Divided and The Devil's Whore were just perfect.
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I can't comment more because I don't remember it that well, but about cardenal Bocanegra, I had read a comic book about the first one of the saga (I have the book to read yet) and it was a man, so I suppose I was surprised to see a woman! Not sure what happened to her, but I think it was Blanca Portillo, who is a really impressive and good actress (she used to direct the Roman theatre festival of Merida, and her performaces were always so celebrated), so she was probably a very good option. And Viggo was superb, I recall (and I love that he loves Spain and he even has got a house here and talks Spanish and all that <3)
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They really did try to cram in too many books; following the plot of just one would've been much better. There were way too many starts and stops and it was such a shame because it was such a huge big-budget movie--all that money was wasted on a messy end result. The books are pretty entertaining (although I stopped reading after The Man In the Yellow Doublet because it all got a bit samey and it was getting too patriotic and all the women were always evil, as if Perez-Reverte had run out of ideas). But yeah. It's a shame because there isn't enough cool 17th century entertainment out there anyway, even if it's right up there with medieval Persia as my favourite historical period. At least there are still some cool Musketeer things and By The Sword Divided and The Devil's Whore were just perfect.
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