Adele: Live at the Royal Albert Hall (2011)

Strong and Moving!

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

You can see why Adele is so popular and well-received worldwide. She is a talented singer who sings her heart out to audiences. She can be down-to-earth and humbled by singing at the Royal Albert Hall in South Kensington, London, England. She knows she has made it when you make Royal Albert Hall. Her singing is stellar, strong and passionate. The best part of the concert is when the audience sang "Somebody Like You" to Adele. She had tears in her eyes.

As I expected, Adele's performance was nothing short of amazing. Vocally and visually, she is stunning. The musical arrangements, instrumentals/vocal backing and atmosphere was a joy to behold. I would have rated this DVD a perfect 10 except for the dizzying and confusing editing/direction. While I realize a certain artistry and visual interest is needed to make any video enjoyable to watch, in this case it was so over the top, that it detracted from Adele's unique talent, that being vocally as well as her easy repartee with the audience. The camera stayed on Adele for no longer than 5 seconds at a time while she performed. And sometimes even less. Switching from Adele to shots of the audience, the architecture, the stage decor, the musicians, and for some ridiculous reason, the chandeliers, with a dizzying speed that made my head spin. Rather than adding visual interest for the viewer, to me, it created nothing short of an irritation which lasted over 100 minutes. During a concert where Adele is the star, and her amazing voice and personality are on showcase, it amazes me that the director sought fit to focus the cameras on almost everything but Adele's beautiful face. Fortunately, the CD was included in the pack, which will be much more often listened to than the DVD. This is heartbreaking for me, because visually, Adele is wonderful to look at - but alas, this DVD direction and editing did not use her beauty and stage presence to best advantage,but rather focused more on the surroundings and decor of the theatre, rather than its amazing star performer.

A wonderful performance showcasing Adele's truly awesome vocal and song writing talents. Clearly the audience was in love with Adele, and her with them - a love fest. The emotion was palpable at times. Adele's beautifully lusty vocal cords, always filled with emotion, establish her as the best contemporary musician IMO. The blu-ray video was truly a treat for all the senses.The only criticism of the performance was some of the camera work which moved around far too often, the average sound quality (Dolby Digital), and Adele's failure to acknowledge some of the other band members. Particularly Miles Robertson at the keyboard who IMO anchored her performance and added a beautiful musical depth.

I was really expecting to like this because I like Adele's music. Indeed, the musical part was excellent with the exception of a few shrill notes, presumably due to the medical problem with her vocal chords that required surgery recently. I would rate the music a 9 or 10.Unfortunately, the visuals were totally overproduced. It seemed like they had cameras everywhere producing some very interesting shots. Apparently the director felt constrained to use every camera frequently. As a result, the visuals came across as though it had been directed by a hyperactive ten year old. There was a new camera angle every few seconds. Early on, I found myself silently counting: one Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi, four Mississippi and BANG, like clockwork a new camera shot appeared on the screen, usually totally unrelated to the last shot. The only shots lasting more than four seconds were taken using cameras that were in motion or zooming in or out.At heart this was a simple show - a woman seated on a stool or standing at a microphone with an orchestra and backup singers behind her. Adele sings intelligent thoughtful songs. There were no dancers or big production numbers ala Lady Gaga, Beyonce or Britney Spears. If I had been there in person, I believe that I would have been focusing most of my attention on Adele and only occasionally looking all over the place. I wish the director could have done it simply and lingered with shots of Adele for at least ten seconds so but perhaps he felt he needed to manufacture some excitement. I feel that the direction was a disservice to the viewing and disrespectful to Adele and her artistry.Personally, I found myself paying more attention to the constant camera shifting than to Adele and the music. I found the direction so distracting that I gave up after about 15 minutes and listened, rather than watched, looking only occasionally at the screen to see if the camera lingered on any shots of Adele. Needless to say, they did notI gave this a 6 overall - 10 for the music but 1 for the visual. I would have been better off buying the CD.