As I being, I should warn you that my opinions are heavily biased in favour of the Branagh adaptation, as it is my favourite adaptation of Shakespeare.
Let's see. Comparing the Duke of Exeter in this version to Brian Blessed in the previous, I can easily say that Anton Lesser looks like a weak push-over compared to Blessed's menacing executor of Henry's will. He's the one that bugged me most.
Hiddleston does not give a bad performance, but his speeches are completely robbed of passion, evident from his soldiers' reaction to them (they couldn't look less impressed). Removing the Southampton scene was also a bad idea - Only thing I liked more than Branagh was the Harfleur speech, adding civilians to it made it much more menacing (although again, there is not much passion to the speech).
The Duke of York, whose change of actor from Richard II is a little bit awkward, dies in the most anti-climatic way possible. Two English commanders and a French commander just quit the battlefield to kill each other?
And of course, the Archbishop of Canterbury. It seemed like he was more forced to delivering his lines, rather than being the manipulating priest he was in the Branagh version. It's a wonder he even managed to sway Henry into a decision.
It's been an orderless review, but I should mention the Battle of Agincourt again. After the battle in Henry IV pt. 1, I expected to see a gritty and muddy adaptation of Agincourt. What I found, instead, was a boring time-filler. Unwise camera angles show you how small the battle actually is compared to what it should be.
Overall, it was a very disappointing adaptation of Henry V, and compared to earlier plays in the Hollow Crown series, it fell short.
Let's see. Comparing the Duke of Exeter in this version to Brian Blessed in the previous, I can easily say that Anton Lesser looks like a weak push-over compared to Blessed's menacing executor of Henry's will. He's the one that bugged me most.
Hiddleston does not give a bad performance, but his speeches are completely robbed of passion, evident from his soldiers' reaction to them (they couldn't look less impressed). Removing the Southampton scene was also a bad idea - Only thing I liked more than Branagh was the Harfleur speech, adding civilians to it made it much more menacing (although again, there is not much passion to the speech).
The Duke of York, whose change of actor from Richard II is a little bit awkward, dies in the most anti-climatic way possible. Two English commanders and a French commander just quit the battlefield to kill each other?
And of course, the Archbishop of Canterbury. It seemed like he was more forced to delivering his lines, rather than being the manipulating priest he was in the Branagh version. It's a wonder he even managed to sway Henry into a decision.
It's been an orderless review, but I should mention the Battle of Agincourt again. After the battle in Henry IV pt. 1, I expected to see a gritty and muddy adaptation of Agincourt. What I found, instead, was a boring time-filler. Unwise camera angles show you how small the battle actually is compared to what it should be.
Overall, it was a very disappointing adaptation of Henry V, and compared to earlier plays in the Hollow Crown series, it fell short.