O, full of scorpions is my mind

Rating: 7/10 (3 February 2016)

Justin Kurzel's adaptation of the Scottish play features interesting visuals and fine performances.
The movie captures some striking images, with mist-draped moors and battlefields soaked in a nightmarish red light. It does "look good" in the simplest, most earnest meaning of the phrase, although it lacks the exquisite movement and composition of Kurosawa's Throne of Blood and Ran or the ingenious way Orson Welles' Othello played with architecture.
Fassbender is forceful and charismatic - a strong turn with moments of sheer brilliance, like the mirthless, desperate laughter he delivers when uttering the line I put in the review's title. Cotillard is powerful as long as her Lady is ruthless and manipulative, but gets sidelined when she spirals into madness. Harris and Considine are excellent in supporting roles.
For the standard of cinematic adaptations of the Bard I would call this moderately faithful, but there are a few dubious choices. Here Malcolm flees to England after discovering a still bloody Macbeth next to Duncan's corpse, which reflects very poorly on him and makes little sense (why would the Thane spare him at this point?). Macbeth's last stand also feels too much "tragic hero" and not enough "villain protagonist"; he essentially commits suicide and is given a curiously dignified ending. It is true that, in spite of his deeds, Macbeth is meant to engage, to an extent, our sympathy... but he is not supposed to be Brutus.
Macbeth and his wife losing a child (the movie opens with his funeral), on the other hand, is a reasonable interpretation of the source material - see the Lady's "I have given suck, and know" (1.7).
As far as Shakespeare on the big screen goes, this is, overall, a respectable effort. If in the future Kurzel will handle other plays, they will be worth watching.
7/10