Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Load of rubbish!!

Best movie ever!

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

This vote is partial and based on seeing the first two episodes this month (October 2015) on Argentine cable TV (Film & Arts). Therefore it is not a full opinion. I have enjoyed the acting and storyline very much so far.I have two criticisms which may be the fault of the author of the book on which it is based or failing to consult military authorities.(1) Trench warfare was resorted to at the end of 1914 and not at the outbreak of war. Initially the fighting was mobile. The belligerents only dug in once they realized the scale of their losses and had become exhausted.(2) In the British Army, nobody ever salutes anybody else when not wearing headgear. Having had that drilled into me as a young man fifty years ago I found that to be an irritating error.

Christopher Tietjens is a man of immense character. He does what is right and what tradition demands of him. He is the sort of person you can expect to back upon, whether one is cheating wife, an untrustworthy friend or a fellow soldier. The plot revolves around what are his limits, how much can he bear his cheating wife, how much can he trust his emotions about a simple minded sorta rebellious girl who makes an unexpected arrival in his life. After all he is the last man at the end of parade of honorable men. Damn if he does damn if he don't. Watching this series is like reading the book. You want to keep it down because it may not go where you expect or want to go but you want to know how much Tiejens can take it further. You feel sorry for the fellow. It does justice to the book. Acting is brilliant, characters do come to life especially of Silvia who is played by Rebecca Hall, Benedict is awesome as he usually is. Pace is very slow but it does capture the emotion behind the plot. I Would recommend you to watch it if you haven't read the book.

This is an impressive adaptation. It is obscure in many ways, but that is, I think, the point. An old-fashioned, decent Englishman, Christopher, has a fling with an aristocrat on a train, Sylvia, and this sets both of them on a downward spiral. Why did they do it? Why do people get mixed up with the absolute wrong person? I think their attraction is that they are both completely outdated types: She is the worst of a selfish, dissolute aristocracy, who gets its way through clubby connections and manipulation. He is the best of the old ways: honorable and self-denying. She sees his value as nobody else does and she uses her nasty, underhanded tactics to defend him as much as to corrupt him. He on the contrary uses his code to admire her as much as repress her. It is the last gasp of Old England. Complicating the story is Valentine, the suffragette. She is truthful, unselfish and decent to others, like Crissy (as they call him), but she hates the old ways and offer him a choice. Is there a place for such values in the dawning 20th century? The stories about corrupt government ministers, crazy churchmen, nasty adulterers, cruel gossips and the horror of WWI unfolds against this basic conflict between the dying gentlemanly code and the unfolding new century. Benedict Cumberbatch is outstanding as Christopher: he always balances the exterior coldness and interior passion, and we can like him without sharing his dated beliefs. Rebecca Hall also does a lot with Sylvia, who could have been a cheating nasty B but shows us how much she hopes for love and is unable to find it in the narrow upper-class world.This series demands that the viewer do the work. It never plays down to the audience, and I'm glad of it. It's worth pondering why people make the choices they do, especially under the pressure of a World War. Really top-notch.

"Parade's End" is a five-part miniseries from England starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Rebecca Hall, Rupert Everett, Miranda Richardson, and Janet McTeer. Based on the novel by Ford Maddox Ford, the script was written by Tom Stoppard.The story is about the British upper class pre- and during World War I, focusing on Christopher Tietjens (Cumberbatch) and his wife Sylvia (Rebecca Hall). Christopher is an honorable man and extremely repressed, it seems - he won't sleep with the woman he loves (Adelaide Clemens) because he's married, but then he's not sleeping with his wife, who has been unfaithful to him and may or may not have given birth to their son.Tietjens eventually joins the war office rather than staying in safety because he considers it more honest than what he's being asked to do at his job as a government statistician.I didn't read the book -- according to the reviews, the role of Sylvia is not supposed to be sympathetic, and Rebecca Hall has been criticized for this. I would submit it's not her fault, it's the director's - I'm sure she could have acted the role any way she was requested to do it.The director cast young Adelaide Clemens as Tietjens' would-be mistress, though their relationship isn't consummated before or during the war. I have to agree with reviews, for a suffragette, she's pretty vapid.Benedict Cumberbatch is one of the greatest actors today, and again, as reviews have pointed out, he has now achieved matinée idol status. Originally HBO did not want him in this series because they didn't know who he was; by the time the series was ready to be filmed, they said it had to be with Benedict or they wouldn't do it! Christopher isn't supposed to be a matinée idol - he's described as bulky and unattractive. Cumberbatch gained weight for the role to make himself look a little bigger, though by no means bulky, and he wore inserts in his face to kill those incredibly high cheekbones. He also does something with the jaw area - he had jowls and an unusual way of using his mouth, which has been compared to Edward Fox's and Jeremy Irons' jaw movements. It's part of his characterization, so he actually doesn't look like the dashing Sherlock, between that, his weight, and his lighter hair. He's also lowered his voice, which was pretty low to begin with.All in all, it's a brilliant performance. He really is a true chameleon. Christopher, however, to Americans anyway, is difficult to understand with his uptightness and his honor, just like one lost patience with Ashley Wilkes and his mixed messages to Scarlett.And since Cumberbatch is now a matinée idol and if you're a woman, what you're waiting for is some sex and boy, there wasn't much of that, though we did get to see his bare chest when his shirt was open. Wow. We who have seen him do love scenes, such as in The Last Enemy, were left pretty much like Sylvia -- frustrated.There are some beautiful scenes and some very gritty war scenes, plus lots of symbolism to be had. This series has been compared to Downton Abbey but it is in no way a soap opera. It's much more subtle; it moves slowly, as that way of life did, with everything looking good on the surface but bubbling with scandal and problems underneath.A great effort that succeeds in part, with some wonderful acting.