Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on December 2012

Nice-looking film dredges up the hoary old anti-Stratfordian argument that Shakespeare couldn’t have written all those great plays because a commoner was incapable of such genius. It was purportedly made by Roland Emmerich (the guy responsible for 2012, the US Godzilla and The Day After Tomorrow), but some believe Michael Bay to be the true author. Whatever. Boils down to a tiresome, complex tale of not-very-intriguing Elizabethan palace intrigue involving a lot of sex, betrayal and violence that will insult British historians, anger Shakespeare fans, and bore the socks off everyone else.