Magnus (2016) User Reviews

A bit too linear and obvious, lacks depth

[FabledGentleman · 6/10 · 15 October 2016]

I have followed Magnus Carlsen since he was around 13 years old. Here in Norway we have of course got to know him very well thru the years, he was a boy we sort of all watched grow up to become the highest ranked chess player of all time. And the road to the top has been entertaining, thrilling and inspiring.

This documentary show us a lot of images from Magnus youth, all the way back to when he was very young, before he even started playing chess. The documentary is for the most part linear in it's storytelling, and is also very "by the book" in it's presentation. Very little new is told that I didn't already know. What i hadn't seen much of before was these private family film clips, which this documentary shows a lot of. And they are IMO the strong part of the documentary, followed by narration, mostly done by Magnus father.

But here is also the documentary's weak point, it's linear storytelling, a story which I and most Norwegians already know, i can't but feel it becomes a bit repetitive. It feels like the documentary is a sort of a flat textbook tale that we all know how ends, and what we all know contains.

And the documentary is short, it runs at just above 1 hour, and i feel that it shouldn't have ended where it did, and far to few interviews were done with key people to try and get a better understanding of what goes on, and why Magnus is such a big deal. The only thing i can think of that resulted in the exclusion of these interviews is that they didn't have the money, and therefor it also feels like this documentary wasn't really taken as seriously as it should. Because i can't believe the director didn't want this film to include interviews with players like Anand and Agdestein, among many others, to further tell this story.

This documentary could have been a lot more exiting. One thing i would have wanted from it is to hear what other champions felt and learned facing Magnus on the board.

I also felt that the super cuts with all the media clips was poorly done, here it seemed like the director actually knew he was "only" making a very predictable documentary, basically just showing Magnus from A to B with a tension chess game at the end. Almost like he just rushed to the end to show us why he wanted to make this documentary in the first place. To say: Magnus is the best chess player in the world.

It's just that, we all know this already.

I actually wanted to see those media clips, and i also wanted to see when those clips where aired, to give us a clear picture on how Magnus progressed, month by month, when he was closing in to the top. And as i already mentioned, i already knew these things from reading the newspapers here in my country, but for viewers anywhere else, this would have helped a lot to the story. But instead these clips are cut and mixed in such a way they become babble and a mess, and this was IMO a mistake.

The documentary does however have many good moments as well. It's just that i feel i don't know Magnus much better now than i did before i saw it. This might be completely different for people that don't know much about him of course, but the film is still a very safe tale told in a safe linear pattern, and moves very carefully in it's presentation.

6/10 - decent

Difficult subject perhaps, but they made the most of it

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 19 November 2016]

"Magnus" is a Norwegian English-language documentary movie written and directed by relatively young Norwegian filmmaker Benjamin Ree. The title character here is Magnus Carlsen, a man in his mid-20s who is, despite his tender age, the currently reigning chess World Champion, but this actually could not be true for much longer as, right now, he is in a tough battle to keep his crown with an equally young contender from Russia. This is certainly a bit unusual looking at the ages of previous world champions in chess. Let me start this review by saying something about myself. I am somebody who knows the basic rules of chess, but has not played it in a very long time. And for people like me, this is probably also the target group who will enjoy it the most. People with no interest in chess will not get interested through this film. And huge experts will find it a bit boring perhaps as they know all the stuff in there anyway. I personally liked the second half especially, even if this will probably not appeal to everybody as it was very much a sports documentary at that point already, but I found it very interesting to see him during his games, especially against Anand. The only criticism I have is that maybe Anand was depicted as too much of a villain and a cold processing machine, even if this may indeed be his approach. A more personal note, also on the enemy, may have been nicer. And this personal note was also missing completely when they talked about the qualification tournament I guess as we just saw briefly one game after the other, one opponent after the other. Then again the relatively short film (75 minutes) is mostly on Carlsen and nobody else, so I can somewhat understand the approach.

Another aspect I found a bit stereotypical and generic for this genre was the way they tried to show him as an outsider when he was a boy and at the very end closed the film with depicting him as somebody who likes social contact now, so maybe this was when the movie took itself too seriously as the emotional component they were occasionally going for did not have any effect on me whatsoever. This film is at its best when it just shows Carlsen's competitive side and we see him as a professional "athlete" during his road to the World Championship. But admittedly the weaker aspects are also far from bad enough to make this an underwhelming film overall. I just mention these to explain why this documentary is not one of my favorite films from 2016. It definitely makes for a good watch though, just not for a great one, which was admittedly not too easy though with the subject. I give it a thumbs-up and I also want to emphasize again that I liked Ree's approach of keeping this film very short and essential instead of filling it with some more rather pointless sequences. The way it turned out here it's certainly worth seeing for everybody who cares a bit about chess. So what are you waiting for. Go check it out!

Not bad but a little too standard

[basvandergraaff · 6/10 · 30 June 2022]

A very chronological story, primarily focused on his rise to the title of world champion. There is really no chess positions in it, so if you're not actually seeing anything of his brilliance. But his social situation and character is shown quite well.

One thing I really did not like about it is how Anand is portrayed to be some kind of super memory that can't really think for himself at all, only recite moves from other games. Anyone who knows Anand a little knows that's incredibly far from the truth.

Great film! You don't need to play chess..,

[ashkotak-25081 · 9/10 · 16 November 2016]

I loved this film, it is entertaining and emotional. I found myself completely on Magnus' side by the end of the film; I felt like a sudden avid chess fan! It is a great film for all the family.

'Magnus' explores his passion and individuality that leads an audience to fully understand why he is the number 1 chess player worldwide; the film unfolds adding narrative upon narrative, layer by layer so I, sitting in the audience, was continually surprised.

I also learnt a lot about chess but also about drive, passion and obsession. It is by following a linear structure with flashback, that Benjamin Rees, the director, allows us to concentrate and follow his journey from protegé to his differentiated self; the emotional aspect of the film is also about his internal journey from boy to man. It is left up to us to emotionally connect to Magnus' journey. We are not told, we see and experience which is the essence of a good film.

'Magnus' works on so many levels but overall it is a thrilling journey about a desire to be the best in the World. In fact I want to see it again. I understand it took 10 years to film and the Executive Producer is a chess player too. The passion behind the camera is realised in front of it too. The audience at the London Film Festival bursts into spontaneous applause as the titles began to roll.

Highly recommended!

Excellent Film!

[jennradt · 10/10 · 7 March 2017]

I dislike documentaries generally but decided to watch this because of the subject matter. It is a fantastic film! I will probably view it again soon. It was very emotional, in a very positive way. You see how much is at stake for these world class chess players. The footage of Magnus and his family from early childhood to chess champion was utterly unique. So much better than a movie.

great documentary film; good ending; respect for this guy

[nahumthebest · 9/10 · 9 July 2020]

81% on RT. 7.1 on IMDB. 52% on Metacritic. 92% of google users liked this movie.

This guy deserves more recognition. Hollywood should make a movie about him; such a movie if made right would make a lot of millions and would inspire a whole generation of chess players in the U.S.

I liked the fact that this documentary film showed videos of Magnus as a kid and as he was growing up and I liked that they showed all of his games as a candidate and all his games against the world champion. And the ending was well made too.

The guy has been world champion since 2013 and is currently holding three world titles.

I cannot wait for part II of the 2020 Candidates Tournament to resume when covid-19 permits it. It is clear that Maxime, Ian, or Fabiano will win to challenge Magnus. If it is Ian vs. Magnus, it will be epic!

Conclusion: highly recommend this documentary film. Very enjoyable. I do not play but I am inspired to learn.

9/10

Fake Drama

[shenox-46932 · 3/10 · 17 August 2023]

Ridiculous over dramatization of the world chess championship, for some reason Vishy gets almost vilified. Preparation is treated as this unsportmanship like thing that only Vishy does with his ominous chess team, while Magnus spends the downtime reading donald duck and playing cards.

The documentary also made it look like Kasparov and Magnus played 1 game and drew when in reality Magnus lost twice and drew once

I liked the beginning of the documentary showing young Magnus competing but thats about it. The documentary probably tried to appease a broad audience by creating drama that wasn't even there which probably makes sense from a financial standpoint but it certainly makes the documentary worse for anyone familiar with chess.

What's in a name?! How about the name "Mozart"?

[rob-broekhof-1 · 9/10 · 7 September 2020]

I started watching this documentary because of my interest in how Artificial Intelligence and human intelligence relate to each other. After watching this documentary for a couple of minutes I realized that it was about that boy my dad talked about many years ago. He told me then, that one of the best chess players in the world was a young boy. The documentary shows his road to his participation in the World Chess Championship 2013 and also about how he developed as a human being. It tells even a little bit about how he developed after 2013. It also gives a lot of hints about why Magnus is special and why he's called "The Mozart of Chess". That's what I really liked about this documentary. Besides that I also liked that it shows an exciting story, probably because I didn't know that how the story would end. I only knew about the fact that he was that young boy that my dad had talked about. Although I do appreciate the chess game, I am just a recreational player, that understands the difference between recreational players and people that start feeling the need to find out their FIDE-rating. This documentary shed a new light on my understanding of the difference between FIDE-rated players. Finally, I liked it that although this documentary is about a chess player, it's most probably not necessary to be a chess player to watch it. It's worthwile to anyone who's interested in watching what someone encounters in trying to reach their top.

Excellent chess documentary

[automorphism · 9/10 · 8 March 2021]

This documentary examines the life of Magnus Carlsen, world chess champion.

The reason why it does such a good job portraying his rise to fame is because his family has quite a lot of documentary footage starting from his early life to world champion. The story is thus illustrated quite well. It manages to convey the chess world along with the stress that can come at the top levels.

One thing I really enjoyed about this documentary was its positivity. I dislike documentaries that focus strongly on drama and failure just to bring in the audience. Far too obvious and off-putting. This is generally just a very nice, uplifting story.

It's hard to find anything wrong with it. I might have enjoyed a bit more commentary on some of the games, but otherwise it is nearly perfect.