Hamlet 2025 Film Premieres to Lackluster Reviews

A 2025 adaptation of what may well be Shakespeare’s most famous play — Hamlet — by Aneil Karia, starring Riz Ahmed as the reluctant prince, has left critics unimpressed at its premiere. The movie is set in modern-day London, with Hamlet being the son of a father who heads a wealthy family of South Asian heritage.

Despite the modern setting, the play preserves the original text, which is famous for its poetic language and famous quotes such as the “to be or not to be speech.” The play revolves around Hamlet’s reaction to the knowledge that his father has been killed by his own uncle — King Claudius.

Riz Ahmed as Hamlet.

Hamlet's fatal flaw is that he is predisposed to inaction. Intellectually and morally, he understands that he needs to avenge his father; however, he hesitates and overthinks. In particular, he overthinks the behavior of his mother Gertrude, who has quickly married his uncle Claudius just after the death of the King, her husband. 

Of course, this is not the first film adaptation of Hamlet. The most famous adaptation was directed by Kenneth Branagh, who also starred in the main role as Hamlet. Like the current adaptation by Karia, it included the dense and lush poetic language of Shakespeare. Famously, the 1996 movie was over four hours long since Branagh aimed to leave out nothing from the original play. 

However, Brangah’s World War I era-type costume designs, although not contemporaneous with neither Shakespeare’s time nor the medieval era in which Hamlet was set, are nonetheless less modern than the era in which we live. This is unlike the Karia’s adaptation which preserves the original Shakespearean dialogue while making the setting super modern. 

What do the critics have to say 

Critics and film enthusiasts had a chance to see the film at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado, and most of them were unmoved. Peter Debruge, writing for Variety, described it as a “tragedy with no reason to be” in his headline. Christian Zilko, writing for IndieWire, praises the film as doing a good job of execution in terms of its modern setting, but wonders if this new adaptation was even necessary. 

Caryn James in an article in The Hollywood Reporter provides qualified praise for the movie by calling it a “shaky contemporary version.” This lackluster praise is in contrast to the enthusiastic reaction to another Shakespeare-inspired movie — Hamnet. 

Perhaps it’s due to the fact that instead of re-enacting a well-trodden Shakespearean play, the movie is a fictional exploration of how Shakespeare and his wife deal with the death of their son. Hamnet is a variation of Hamlet, and it is believed that “the” Hamlet was inspired by Shakespeare’s son. 

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Cite this EminentEdit article

Antoine, M. (2025, September 01). Hamlet 2025 Film Prenieres to Lacklustre Reviews. EminentEdit.