User Reviews

There's little effective pretense even though the movie attempts to give some backstory in the first few minutes. This movie will be much more substantial and meaningful to the informed viewers. I initially agreed that the graphic violence was excessive but after researching the man and his exploits on the battlefield, the gore could've gone even farther...

Foster gives a solid performance as Jan Zizka and Sophie Lowe was exceptional as the amiable, loyal and fiercely courageous, Princess Catherine. The Score and Cinematography are both beautifully revealed characters unto themselves.

Medieval isn't 'Gladiator' and doesn't try to be.

It's a stand alone Biographical Account of one of history's greatest military minds. The movie does well with slightly over 2 hours but could easily have been made into a miniseries or multi-part movie(only a small pivotal point of his life is conveyed in the movie). Some may disagree but as a fan of History this is a story that needed to be told, and told in its graphic realism.

There's a couple early hiccups in the dialogue but otherwise it's fairly well written and flows evenly after a lagging beginning. Medieval is a solid 70/100.

I didn't have much expectation heading into this, I just generally love watching medieval films and series purely for the gore; I think watching people wage war with spears, battle axes, maces and swords is much more thrilling than gun fights, still love them though.

Straight from the start it reminded me of History's Vikings tv series, if you're a fan of that you might love this as well. I didn't know it's a true story. There wasn't as much character development but I think they didn't have time for that, it focuses more on the story and that was enough to get you invested in the characters by the end. The acting was splendid by the whole cast. A little sad because I have a feeling the movie won't get the recognition it deserves. I think it's better than The Northman in the sense it's paced better and has more story in my opinion, cinematography might not be as great but still pretty good. The fights were amazing and bloody but I thought some gory scenes weren't shown to us, we just get to see the aftermath especially in the first half. There was a lot at stake and I love how you never really know who's gonna make it especially in the third act.

In the end I love it and remembering these are true events really made the emotional end to it even more heartfelt. Fun watch on the big screens if you're a fan of watching medieval knights bang steel slice through skulls like piñatas. Movies based in the dark era aren't always to everyone's taste but I hope this doesn't go under the radar and people get to enjoy it.

Since two decades now, medieval movies from Europe, Eastern Europe are galore, more gruesome one than the other, huge budgets for huge craps most of the time, available mainly un streaming platforms. Most of those lousy productions bet only on gruesome battles, bloody, brutal, battle scenes, where cruelty is the main word. Besides this, nothing at all, bad directing and I don't even speak of the acting. This one is from Czech Republic but seems to be co produced with UK film industry; it is spoken in English and stars Ben Foster and Michael Caine. So, it won't be a surprise if I say it is not for the sissies, it is bloody, with man details concerning meat chopper fight sequences. But the story is not that bad for such a film, not that bad. However, it will never make me forget THE WARLORD, starring Chuck Heston; FLESH AND BLOOD from director Paul Verhoeven, or any Ridley Scott's movie for this scheme.

Well I never heard of this Czech warlord. Ben Foster did a good job portraying him. The production of this movie is good, with some well directed battle scenes, good acting from the entire cast, and a normally interesting story. The problem I had with the movie is how confusing it gets sometimes. I really tried to concentrate but it's just not an easy told story. If you're into medieval movies though it's certainly worth a watch. The costumes and the sceneries are very good, the battles gruesome but excellently filmed so you can't really go wrong with Medieval. Too bad the story was a bit confusing.

Instead, it felt generic, rushed with over emphasis on fighting. This is a true story, based on real events and real people. We have the historical data on all of them yet in the movie, they are vaguely mentioned in intro and outro credits.

The in between or the movie itself is a random series of fights between groups that are not developed well; we feel no emphathy for them, nor do we even know who they are. The movie is also not historically accurate in terms of setting, mannerism, props. It is just generic medieval fighting movie with a backstory that the viewer has to create in their mind as they watch. If you do that, it becomes better sure, but on its own, as a movie as presented, it lacks a lot.

The events this attempts to cover are pivotal for the time and could have easily been on the level of development we saw in braveheart and gladiator; but alas they opted for shallowness. Acting is not great, not bad but not great, acceptable at best. If it were not based on the true events it attempts to cover, it would have stood better for what it was. Unfortunately the creators trying to make it real life historical completely bombed the pooch here. There was no need for it because there is no history in this movie; none, at all. I guess they felt it added extra importance to the movie by telling us who it was about and what events it tried to convey but that's about it. Few lines on the screen that do not match what we saw, do not a historical movie make.

It is watchable, just highly disappointing, having ruined such an amazing potential story. I understand it is difficult to properly convey things so far back in history where records were so vague about a lot of things, however look at how other movies approached it. This simply does not even feel in the right time period. It feels a lot like generic sword fight at your local fair ground. Granted the fighting was not horrible but again, without any other context being done proper, it just becomes a generic sword fight movie.

If you like films about the Middle Ages, then this one is worth the watch. Yes, it is much like other films in this genre (blood and guts and a little bit of a love story), but the director did a great job with angles and sequence and speed. Being based on true events, the storyline in Medieval is unique, as well. Ben Foster leads the film well, and the supporting cast, especially Sophie Lowe and Michael Caine do a nice job. It's not a movie that I will watch over and over again, but it was well worth the watch in the theater, and I'm sure I will watch it at least one more time when it hits the digital market.

I love Ben Foster. I think he chooses excellent movies.

I could maybe make out 30% of the dialogue in this movie. The audio is absolutely atrocious. The acting is good, the cinematography is great... So the fact that you simply cannot understand any dialogue is beyond glaring. It's not even the accents. If the dialogue isn't being drowned out by the unnecessary loud and booming bass, the spoken words are just unintelligible. I cannot believe a movie with this kind of cast would have these kind of issues.

There were also several spots with obvious editing issues. Where the characters mouth did not match up with the words the audience was hearing. Which just goes to show that no one who produced this movie bothered to actually watch it. Amateur stuff.

With a plot that is already hard to follow as others have mentioned, these issues made the movie nearly unwatchable. Super disappointed.

Medieval is helped by a restrained yet captivating performance from Ben Foster. Even better is the production design and costumes; it's a very good-looking, immersive, realistic production.

It's a film that has some impressive moments of intense action and several compelling scenes. But the film can't help but crumble under the weight of its convoluted storytelling.

The plot revolves around a soldier caught in the midst of the political scheming between two brothers who seek to be emperor, and how he and those he leads are forced to suffer the consequences of their scheming.

When I put it that way, it sounds simple; but that's not how it plays out on screen.

The films does a lamentably poor job of establishing its multiple antagonists and their respective loyalties, motivations, and especially how they seek to achieve their goals.

This is largely due in part to an absurd amount of name-dropping that gets difficult to follow. There are certain characters whose names are crucial to the plot but these characters themselves are rarely, and sometimes never, seen.

It's unclear what role everyone is playing in the story because there are so many people to keep track of and the script doesn't properly develop any of them.

Not even the action is particularly exciting. It's mostly clumsily filmed and opaquely edited, leaving the impact of every sword swing and arrow pierce off screen. It's action without weight or a sense of significance.

By the end of the movie, I felt nothing, because the story concludes without anything of note having changed for either the characters or for the political situation we've been following.

It's a largely dull experience without clear stakes and without clear goals and without any meaningful depth of character or theme.

I see why there was virtually no marketing for this whatsoever.

Unlike most of the negative low ratings against this movie that almost made me decide to not viewing it and, even when I finally decided to give it a try, my expectation was still not quite high enough to give it a full shot. But this movie turned out to be pretty good actually. Yes, this movie got a serious audio and soundtrack problems. The dialog between or among the characters sometimes was too low or too vague to be heard clearly, and most of the time was blocked by the annoying loud soundtrack which supposedly should be in the background and subtle enough to support the ongoing of the story, but sadly, the music often played too loud and over-the-top dominant over the scenes, and lot of times too religiously annoying. It also made me wonder if the production team hired a qualified enough audio professional group to handle the recording or microphone. It seems that there were lot of times, the microphone was placed either too far away or too high to record the characters dialog so that always ended up either too vague or too low to be heard clearly. The crew who took care of the audio part of this movie should never be hired by any other movie makers in case to cause the similar problems.

There are so many negative reviews against this movie, but to me, it's a decent and seriously made one, at least worth watching once for your time and money. Ben Foster did a very good job, but the screenplay didn't give him too much to develop and show the character he played. Michael Caine also faithfully did his part, even it's such a weightless role. Sophie Lowe also acted well for her tragic role in this movie, but luckily, her character was much well developed as the storyline went on.

The fighting scenes are well arranged, brutal, bloody and realistic enough to make you cringe sometimes. Again, the faulty audio almost ruined everything!

This movie has amazing visuals, which are completely under-minded by an annoying and loud constant white-noise filled backing track, that makes the dialogue require subtitles even for those who understand English fluently. It's hard to even call it a backing track when it takes the forefront enough to drown out a large majority of the speech.

I would suspect that this should not be as common as it is these days, and why the people working in this film haven't complained themselves about the editing quality of this specific film, then I would be seriously surprised... A REMASTER could save it.

Medieval Europe is in conflict. In fact, two rival Popes have been elected, one in Rome and one in France. It's 1402 Italy. Czech warrior Jan Zizka (Ben Foster) is tasked by Lord Boresh (Michael Caine) to kidnap Katherine (Sophie Lowe) and force his fiancée Rosenberg (Til Schweiger) to support King Wenceslas IV. He would battle the Teutonic Order and the Holy Roman Empire.

The politics is confusing. I barely understand the premise behind this story. More than anything, I know that Ben Foster is the lead. There are good guys and bad guys, in the movie, not in history. There is a great battle in the middle of the film. I would have liked the movie to wrap up faster after that. In the end, I like some of the fights and the muddy style despite the confusing history.

I consider this a decent movie, but, with actors like Ben Foster (the only reason I watched the movie), Michael Caine, Til Schweiger, Matthew Goode and Sophie Lowe this could've been a blockbuster. It felt so disconnected, it just didn't flow. The acting was phenomenal, which is the only reason I gave it a 6. The characters were very interesting and with the history, at the time, there is so much more they could have done with this movie. You really couldn't tell who the characters were, what they were about, or, what they were even fighting for, until about a third of the way into the film. Ben Foster's character (Jan Ziska) had very little dialogue and I understand being a man of few words, but, this is a movie. In my opinion, the directing and editing is what failed this film.

... and care even less (a lot less), but confused and confounded, at an almighty mess, the dialogue is shabby, if you can hear it at all (almost unintelligible at times), as the background of music drowns out jumbled squall, as to who's fighting who, you won't have a Scooby Doo, as allegiances change and alliances fall, the editing's poor, all in all a huge chore, but if slashing and stabbing leave you wanting more, if dismembering and spearing all get a high score, crack open a can of your favourite Czech lager and ask yourself if Jan Zizka would have blown more than the doors off if he was around to see this nonsense.

One of the most boring historical movies I've ever seen. Slow screenplay, action scene camerawork that moves too quickly, informed yet uninspired dialogue. I would honestly be more entertained looking at a garden, even an imaginary one. I don't even know why they brought Michael Caine into this too - he barely plays a part, & the characters don't even try to adopt a Bohemian, French or Swiss accent. The antagonist is dull and one-dimensional, and it's far FAR more interesting to read about the actual Zizka of Bohemian folklore/history. No gravitas in character dialogue either. Medieval? More like Mediocre.

First, I supposed be only a Czech movie. And I hoped hear , again, the Czech language. The songs solved, in part, this. The cast, the good acting and the passion of Ben Foster for fair portrait of Jan Zizka were good consolation. The ad usum Delphini history can be a sin, not great if you do not ignore the purpose of film.

Well crafted fight scenes and beautiful cinematography. A splendid job of Michael; Caine and Sophie Lowe as perfect option for the role of Catherine. But the prize is the discover , for a large public, of one of remarkable heroes of central Europe of XV century.

And his noble cause in a troubled context.

It is a film who deserves be see. Not only for atmosphere, romance, historical information, fights, tension, impecable introduction to read and search new informations about period, but as a wise remind of essence of politic and the basic purpose of conflicts . And for the high price of freedom.

This movie is better then the ratings suggest. It has solid acting, visual effects and a midrange storyline. But don't let the storyline and rating put you off just yet.

If you like a dark movie based on some historical facts and have a soft spot for violence, you would not be disappointed. The storyline is a bit tame at times and some of the cuts are not well placed. Nevertheless the main characters are greatly portrayed and you somehow feel connected with them even though that the story somehow lacks depth.

The violence and cast still manages to bring the movie up to a score of 7 in my book.

All in all, it's worth a watch.

'Frustrating' is probably the first word that comes to mind when thinking of 'Medieval.' It's an ambitious attempt to tell a (largely fictional) origin story for Czech national hero Jan Zizka, one of history's most renowned military commanders and you can see flashes of greatness in it, but it's also deeply flawed. On the one hand, there's an excellent cast, some grimy battle scenes and it convincingly recreates the brutality of medieval life. On the other, it's poorly edited and the storyline is needlessly confusing. There's enough duplicitous scheming to fill an entire season of 'Game Of Thrones,' but it's squeezed into a two-hour movie that also features near-constant violence. Keeping track of who's betrayed who and who's allied with who gets increasingly difficult as the film progresses. Especially as one of the most important characters - King Wenceslas - barely gets any screen time.

The meandering plot keeps it from being a potential 'Gladiator' for the streaming generation, but there is still a lot to commend. For starters, the acting is very good. The ever-reliable Ben Foster does a grand job in the lead role; his Zizka is a no great general, he's the leader of a small mercenary band who just wants to get paid, only to get swept up in events beyond his control. He's a violent man who speaks few words, but can convey a wealth of emotion just by tilting his head in the right way. He doesn't grandstand like Russell Crowe's Maximus, but you can still see why peasants flock to support him as the carnage unfolds. Elsewhere, Matthew Goode is excellent as the Machiavellian King of Hungary, while Sophie Lowe puts in a convincingly layered performance as the kidnapped wife of a Bohemian noble.

The battle scenes aren't perfect and can get confusing, but they're also satisfyingly bone-breaking. They're mostly small-scale affairs taking place in regions that helpfully disguise how few people are actually involved - inside a cave, on a narrow road, or on a smoke-shrouded pass - but when maces hit faces, it looks like it really, really hurts. Limbs are severed, arrows are shot into open mouths and people die horribly, all. The. Time. 'Medieval' presents itself as a heavyweight drama, but it also comes with a ridiculously high body count and it's positively drenched in gore. And that's before the Lion turns up and clamps its jaws around a man's head.

Lastly, the depiction of everyday life in medieval Europe is strikingly bleak. Lives are cheap and people have hard, back-breaking existences clawing out their survival in a harsh world. Peasants are oppressed by nobility and sadistic mercenaries. There's murder, hangings, raids, rape, torture and just about all manner of unpleasantness. Granted, some of it does come dangerously close to resembling 'Monty Python And The Holy Grail' without the jokes, but for the most part, it's a convincingly grim world. There's no heroic chevaliers and gallant men of honour, just blood, slaughter and death.

Which inevitably means it's almost a relief when the credits finally roll. 'Medieval' isn't a pleasant film and its more lofty ambitions are held back by a need to deliver crowd-pleasing fountains of crimson alongside heavyweight, Shakespearean tragedy. However, the cast are terrific, the battles will make you wince and it's so tactile you can almost feel the mud drying beneath your fingernails. 'Medieval' isn't amazing but it also isn't terrible. If you're interested in this period of history or just want to see Ben Foster kill half of Europe with a sword, it's worth checking out.

I know it's 2022 and everyone is a critic and negativity is all anyone brings to the table. I'm the opposite. I'd rather tell you what I liked about something, so here we go.

• Loved the action sequences, and the violence
• Loved the battlefield tactics.

• Excellent cast (besides Til Schweiger)

-Beautiful cinematography

• Perfect ending

I noticed a few editing issues and some dialogue problems. But overall I had a blast with this film. Ben Foster obviously took this role seriously and I always enjoy his work. Michael Caine is the man, and even at his age he still delivers a solid performance. Matthew Goode impressed me in "The Offer" earlier this year so I was interested to see him in this villainous role, he knocks it out of the park. I will definitely be adding this movie to my collection when available.

Enjoy!

I was excited to see a major production based on early Central European history. There have been monumental wars and epic battles in the Western Slavic states, but they've been largely overlooked by Hollywood producers and most of the past local productions were budgetarily challenged.

Unfortunately, what should have been an engrossing slice of history was reduced to a series of thrilling battle scenes and a thin romantic drama between the hero and his captive princess. When Zizka pipes up with a rousing third act rallying speech it's clear this was meant to be a Czech Braveheart. With a little more focus it might have been.

The look of the film is fantastic. Gorgeous cinematography, great period locations and costumes, including plenty of authentic looking armor and convincing peasant garb. The only distracting visual was one character's modern buzzcut, obviously done with electric clippers.

The international cast is very good but the array of accents was hard to ignore. Everything from harsh American to lilting Scandinavian, Slavic, British and German. No big problem though.

What really brings the movie down is the soundtrack. The final mix is absolutely horrendous. Literally 90% of the time when a character opens their mouth to speak, the music swells dramatically as if deliberately trying to drown out the dialog. I quickly gave up trying to decipher whatever exposition or character intros were buried under the pseudo-angelic chorals. Even more frustrating, the production tracks were clearly well-recorded, they were just lost in the sloppy soaring mix.

If you like brutal knightly action you'll find plenty to enjoy in this romp. If it's history you crave, you'll find it a bit sketchy.

In writer / director Petr Jäkl's 1400s-based true-tale actioner "Medieval" Ben Foster (always solid) is warrior knight Jan Zizka who under political king-maker Michael Caine (poor) becomes central to a grand European power struggle playing out in brutal fashion around in & Prague between the noble likes of Matthew Goode, Til Schweiger (both excellent under-rated actors), Sophie Lowe (terrific) & Karel Roden. Bloody violent battles flow (particularly between Foster & barbarian nemesis Robert Møller) but Jäkl's screenplay becomes so confusing & bogged down that there's no way this was going to be a new "Gladiator". Disappointing, considering it's fine cast.

I've been keen to see this since I first came across it. If I recall correctly it was the cast that had initially caught my eye, but more interesting to me was that it explores a real figure in Czech history, and that it has been described as the most expensive Czech film made to date. Having had an opportunity several years ago to travel to the Czech Republic, I've been especially interested in watching any pictures I can from Czech filmmakers. Incidentally, I didn't realize until after I sat down that I already had some familiarity with filmmaker Petr Jákl, having watched his 2015 found footage flick 'Ghoul' last fall - which I found to be average, but a strong average. As to 'Medieval' itself - well, I think it's solidly made. The writing is fine in the broad strokes. It becomes troubled in the details, however, and on that basis is less actively engaging and enjoyable than I had ideally hoped it would be.

It's noteworthy that in the first few minutes we're given a voice-over that provides background on the historical scenario into which the narrative fits, and thusly, exposition. At the same time this audio greets us, a few lines of it are also presented as text on the screen - but weirdly, only select pieces, and not enough that would cement the exposition in and of itself. What comes across is that the film movie has conveyed this information to us rather poorly, and unfortunately, this echoes a major problem with which this struggles at large. 'Medieval' is rather weak in communicating its plot, whether that means establishing characters, the dynamics between them, or the goings-on of any particular story beat. This results in bloody, violent, and well orchestrated battles and action sequences that lack the clarity and context that would make them really matter to us. This needed more meaningful balance in the first place between its moments of robust violence and the quieter drama to fuel it, and those quieter moments aren't the best at telling us what's happening. I harbor no ill will toward Jákl, but rather, I'm just sad that the complexities and nuances of Czech history, in a Czech film by a Czech filmmaker, are reduced to "a struggle for power and stability, wherein murder and backstabbing ensues."

In other capacities there is much to admire in 'Medieval.' The filming locations are lovely, and the production design and art direction are superb. All those effects that are employed come off great, from blood and gore, to fire, and more. Stunts and fight sequences are fantastic, and from costume design to hair and makeup, the feature works hard to underline a core theme of the brutality and ugliness of this period in European history. I quite like Philip Klein's score that lends to the mood of any given scene, and I would note as well that provided one has the speakers by which to appreciate it, the sound design is surely among the more impeccable qualities of the picture. Would that I could say the same of the cinematography, or editing, or Jákl's direction. I don't think any of these elements are specifically bad, and some discrete instances thereof are splendid. Rather, the issue is that overall there's a coarse brusqueness to each facet that contributes needless, unwelcome frenzy on top of action scenes, chops up and shortchanges the more story-driven scenes, reduces the strength of the cast's earnest performances, diminishes the impact of every beat, and amplifies the sense of the narrative being meagerly imparted. Zesty pacing does this title no favors; that's hardly a fault exclusive to 'Medieval,' but that doesn't make it any better.

I think this is entertaining and deserving on its own merits; Jan Zizka's tale is one worth telling. The movie's value would be much more evident if the plot it has to impart didn't feel like it were being unnaturally squeezed into two hours. It needed to be longer, and its craft less zippy, simply so that every moment could manifest, breathe, and resolve of its own accord, and subsequently make its weight be truly felt. Its value would be much more evident if the screenplay were more careful in its scene writing and dialogue, and its storytelling generally, so that not even the smallest details were lost, nor the gravity of every beat, and character relationship and identity. This could and should have been an engrossing, exhilarating, grand, violent historical epic. All the right pieces are here for it to have been just that. Yet while its flaws are few, they are so substantial as to significantly drag down the worth of the whole. There's no disputing the immense hard work and sincere heart that all involved poured into the production. Had more fastidious care been applied in a few important ways, we in the audience would have felt that labor and authenticity resonate.

'Medieval' is good, and better than not. The problem is that it ultimately feels rather common and unremarkable, and troubled, when it might have instead been exceptional. Alas.

I'm a huge fan of historical dramas. Initially I thought this too another low budget history film. However, the impression is so good. Cinematography is excellent, scenaries are as in imaginery old Bohimian outset. Above average cast and even the supporting characters do a pretty good job. The best part would be the so realistic fight seens. Bloody battles and gruesome nature of the suppression by kings. Very good story line and keep the suspence going till the end. Costumes design is surprisingly natural and have given very detail thought on the clothes of each and every character though the focus on main. Overall its a fantastic movie and really worth watching.