Outside the well-heeled clique of opera-lovers, it's difficult to see who this two hour-plus adaptation of Mozart's 1791 classic will appeal to.

To sugar the operatic pill, director Kenneth Branagh has employed Stephen Fry to loosely translate the German libretto and shoehorn in his trademark bon mots.

He's also signed up respected singers Joseph Kaiser, Rene Pape, Lyobov Petrova as well as newcomer Amy Carson to make the appeal more universal.

There's also splendid CGI rendering of a battlefield redolent of the Somme and some nice touches such as the Queen of the Night (Petrova) making a grand entrance atop a trundling tank.

However, a two-hour opera is a two-hour opera and if you're not a fan this is hardly likely to have you singing opera's praises.

Kaiser plays Tamino, an infantry officer who is persuaded by the Queen of the Night to rescue her daughter Pamina (Carson) from the clutches of the evil Sarastro (Pape).

However, it turns out that the QOTN is the nasty one and Sarastro is an irreproachable blend of humility, mercy and strength.

To an untrained ear, the singing seems perfectly acceptable, even when delivering some of Fry's more trite couplets.

However, despite the best efforts of the effects people, it cannot escape its stagey roots save one astonishing tracking shot which sweeps across the killing fields and up into azure skies arching over fighter squadrons.

Tamino's comedy sidekick Papageno was probably just as irritating in Mozart's age as he is here with but a couple of centuries ago you were probably saved the American accent.

It's an impressive undertaking by Branagh but a rather pointless one.

Tim Evans