I don't think that the film was terrible. It had decent cinematography, music, acting. I really enjoyed listening to so many different languages in the same film. It is watchable once, especially if somebody is interested in this topic and period of history.
But I think it lacked any artistic vision or imagination, depth, or entertainment. I don't know if it was because the filmmakers wanted to stay very true to the historical facts (which would be understandable), but watching the film felt a little bit like listening to a very basic two-hour lecture about Marx and his work.
The plot fell quite flat, without twists, without changes or even a real climax. (I guess Engels' speech in the end was supposed to be the climax of the film, but I only came to that conclusion after thinking about it for a while, since it didn't have too much emotional impact.) In the beginning, Marx works on articles and talks about his theories, after he meets Engels, they work on articles and talk about their theories with each other and others, finally, in the end, they still write articles, and talk about theories. So basically they do the same things and talk about the same things. Marx is having financial problems and has a loving wife, Engels doesn't have financial problems, and has a supporting girlfriend/wife throughout the whole movie. So their circumstances, their private lives do not change too much either. It is great for them, but not so great for the viewers. (Although I am sure that in reality they had quite a bit of drama in their lives, like Engels going against his father, their marriages, the effects of the financial problems, the eviction from France etc.) The glimpse we get into their private lives in a way feels too much, since it is portrayed in a rather uninteresting way, but it's too few to get to know them on a more "personal" level. It still feels like we see two characters who just walked out of the pages of a history book, as opposed to real living people with complex lives and feelings. If you want to know more about Marx, as a young guy, as a person I think this film doesn't do the job. If you want to know more about his work, or this part of history, you are better off reading a book, if you want to be entertained, than maybe it's also not the film for you.
From a different point of view, for a commercial film, it's not really entertaining enough, for an art film, it doesn't have a point of view, and as a biographical film, it's probably not detailed enough.
But I think it lacked any artistic vision or imagination, depth, or entertainment. I don't know if it was because the filmmakers wanted to stay very true to the historical facts (which would be understandable), but watching the film felt a little bit like listening to a very basic two-hour lecture about Marx and his work.
The plot fell quite flat, without twists, without changes or even a real climax. (I guess Engels' speech in the end was supposed to be the climax of the film, but I only came to that conclusion after thinking about it for a while, since it didn't have too much emotional impact.) In the beginning, Marx works on articles and talks about his theories, after he meets Engels, they work on articles and talk about their theories with each other and others, finally, in the end, they still write articles, and talk about theories. So basically they do the same things and talk about the same things. Marx is having financial problems and has a loving wife, Engels doesn't have financial problems, and has a supporting girlfriend/wife throughout the whole movie. So their circumstances, their private lives do not change too much either. It is great for them, but not so great for the viewers. (Although I am sure that in reality they had quite a bit of drama in their lives, like Engels going against his father, their marriages, the effects of the financial problems, the eviction from France etc.) The glimpse we get into their private lives in a way feels too much, since it is portrayed in a rather uninteresting way, but it's too few to get to know them on a more "personal" level. It still feels like we see two characters who just walked out of the pages of a history book, as opposed to real living people with complex lives and feelings. If you want to know more about Marx, as a young guy, as a person I think this film doesn't do the job. If you want to know more about his work, or this part of history, you are better off reading a book, if you want to be entertained, than maybe it's also not the film for you.
From a different point of view, for a commercial film, it's not really entertaining enough, for an art film, it doesn't have a point of view, and as a biographical film, it's probably not detailed enough.