This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

I read Mervyn Peake's novels as a boy, and just reread them this summer (the centenary year of the author's birth). They're truly unique, and at its best Peake's writing is close to miraculous, able to capture sensations and states of mind I would never have imagined another human being had experienced, much less found ways to set down in words.So yes, I'm a fan of the books.And while I didn't expect a great deal from this TV version, I was surprised at just how awful it is. If the filmmakers had deliberately set out to create a total travesty, they could hardly have done a more thorough job. Production design, dialogue, acting, casting, costumes—everything is a horrible mishmash. This is like a cruel parody of Mervyn Peake's vision.At the heart of the books is Steerpike, whose villainous plots drive the story; and at the heart of this misbegotten movie is a truly terrible performance by Jonathan Rhys Meyers. He's badly miscast as Steerpike to start, and even for the watered-down, prettied-up Steerpike given us by this movie, his meager talents are far too inadequate. He seems to think he's playing a naughty Peter Pan, not one of the most complex and compelling villains since Macbeth.Nothing in this movie captures the mesmerizing language, byzantine plotting, grotesque characters, or haunting Gothic atmosphere of the Gormenghast books. Even the look and lay-out of the castle, so unforgettably described by Peake, is missing, and instead we see some second-rate designer's colorful world of whimsy. Gormenghast has been recycled as a generic children's fantasy flick, and that's a shame.

I'm normally a lover of British fantasy (Harry Potter, Doctor Who, etc.), so I've been interested in checking out Gormenghast ever since it was first released. I happened to catch the first two episodes on PBS last night - and realized that I was better off skipping the rest of it! Gormenghast is a distillation of everything I find irritating about BBC productions, without any of the usual benefits of their house style. The acting is ludicrously over-the-top; after a few minutes, I got sick of watching normally respectable actors making stupid grimaces, shouting, whooping and generally carrying on like twits. The direction is rigid and unimaginative, and the film quality is cheap-looking, particularly in the bright outdoor scenes.Perhaps unusually for a BBC production, the sets and the costumes look great. However, the special effects are predictably woeful (I've seen better-looking models on Blakes' 7!) I was hoping that the script might contain a whiff of wit or social satire, but I'm afraid it failed to impress me. The jokes are pretty predictable, particularly those involving the university professors, who all fall asleep during their lectures and speak in mock-academic language. Talk about taking potshots at an easy target! As for the other characters, they tend to have dull and portentous dialog, such as "There is much that needs to be done." In fact, I think that particular phrase is uttered about six times in the first two episodes.I can't say if the original book is better. But I can say with confidence that this miniseries (or at least the first half of it) is rather rubbish. Unless, of course, you really relish the idea of watching venerable character actor Richard Griffiths attack venerable character actor Christropher Lee with a meat cleaver, while simultaneously making funny faces and snorting like a pig. Pfft!

to a fan and repeat reader of the books, this was a very disappointing production. it really had none of the atmosphere, depth of characters, sense of age, menace or drama of the books. instead it was bright and comical, clumsy and light-weight - really inappropriate and even amateurish. the cast had incredible potential, but they were given nothing to work with.i only hope that peter jackson might take this on one day and do these books the justice they deserve.to a die-hard Gormenghast fan, i'd say see it by all means, but be prepared for a pretty big let-down!!

I've read Mervyn Peake's books over and over again. To me, the story of Titus Groan, 77'th earl of Gormenghast, is one that can actually compete with Tolkien's "The Lord Of The Rings".So what do I think about the mini series? Well, obviously no one would dare do what Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema did with the aforementioned movie, so I guess a four part mini series was the next best thing. (Although I would have loved to see this in a cinema!) Good actors and an excitingly stylistic production makes this a worthwhile four hours. Some has been left out, of course, but there's still plenty of material left to build the characters of the story.This is not a fantasy movie. It has no or few classic fantasy elements at all in it. I would rather see it as a fantastic movie, where the laws of the "normal" world aren't broken - just a little bent out of shape...Gormenghast will provide a glimpse into our own world, and even though it's not always pretty, it's always done in beautiful colors.