The New World

Holy yipes! I have seen some boring movies before but this soporific mess is the topper. How does a director graduate from film school having learned only the close up shot? And what excuse can there be for a movie score with only one musical note? Its like listening to the test pattern noise on the TV when you wake up at 4AM on the couch. Even the perpetually grey weather is boring in this film. I haven't checked my watch that much since New Year's Eve. If you need to be rendered comatose for some surgical procedure, then this film is for you. Never have I posted a comment on a movie before. However, in this example it is plain and simply a civic duty since this film risks creating large squads of somnambulistic zombies who might attempt to drive home, wide-eyed but oblivious, from their local theaters. Of course, nature lovers will perhaps be interested in the many long views of trees, grass and water but staring at your wallpaper will be both cheaper and more fun.

The only reason I can understand people would give this such a high rating is because they think that a slow pace and lack of dialogue means art and deep. It is not. As a film studies teacher i've watched films with slow narrative, in fact many of my favourite films are slowly paced but this is snail like and its all over the place. It jumps from some kind of documentary shot (hand held running through yet more grass) and ambient sound to another beautiful shot of our main female character wearing a Vivien Westwood cut dress (was it fashion for native Americans to wear off the shoulder animal skins or 3/4 crop tops in 1608) Its awful. Go watch crash, Capote, walk the line, sideways even batman begins for modern Hollywood, this is dreadful. Its like watching a 10hr Calvin Klein or Tommy advert, i kept expecting them to whisper "eternity by Calvin Klein". There are some great shots but then not as good as many other films that have a fully explored plot depth and content. If you want deep and sexual frustration watch lost in translation. I can't think of another film that tries to be such an epic and fails so bad maybe water world....but even that film is better. For all those that keep saying how this is an art film, maybe try peter Greenaway, if you want to be visually stunned especially prospero's books, or the cook the thief his wife and her lover. This isn't art; its Hollywood trying to do subtle, and it doesn't work. An art film is not just something that looks pretty it is supposed to challenge the audience, the only challenge here is to sit all the way through.

My wife and I love movies. It is not unusual for us to see two per week in the theater. In this year of so many disappointing movies, we were anxiously awaiting The New World, which appeared to have much promise from its previews. Unfortunately, The New World proved not only disappointing, but downright terrible! Someone needs to tell director Terrence Malick that beautiful photography alone does not make a movie! People were actually walking out half-way through this empty, insubstantial picture, which was more of a boring slide-show than a feature film! There was so little script that viewers had no way of knowing who any of the characters were, and there were only haphazard indications of the passage of time. Tragically, this effort fails completely as a historical piece, and you will learn more about the story by reading the film's synopsis than by seeing the over-wrought film itself. Worse, to call this disjointed slide-show a "movie" borders on false advertising, and New Line Cinema has done a dreadful dis-service to movie-lovers by releasing this tripe. I would not be surprised if some slick lawyer decides to file a class-action lawsuit on the part of the misled audience. This slide-show of a film was tedious, vague, ill-conceived, ill-executed, horribly directed and just boring! I will never again waste money on any film that Terrence Malick directs! Never! Die-hard movie fans to the end, my wife and I stuck it out to the very last frame, and we regretted doing so. As we left the theater, all we heard from the other exiting audience members were criticism after criticism. And many were not as kind as this review! Rarely has a gathering of such talented actors, production designers and photographers been so ill-served by a flimsy script, terrible directing and inane editing. Not to mention a music score that was so inappropriate at times that it elicited laughs from the audience during tragic scenes. The only consolation is that word-of-mouth will surely get this picture out of theaters very quickly.

Quite possibly the most boring "epic" ever envisioned; If you like no dialog, lots of trees, swirling random cameras, trees, grass, silence, and trees, this is the movie for you. It's a mind-numbing 2+ hours that you'll never get back. You might actually hate yourself. I'm sure the actual story of John Smith and the Native American girl (never called by her name) is somewhat interesting. This version is not. In fact, it's awful. When I could no longer take it, I killed the DVD and lo an behold - I found 'Under Siege' on the Encore Action channel (for the 47th time this month). Despite being a joke of a movie, it held my interest in a gross kind of way. And it buried 'The New World.'

Make no mistake about it, this movie is appalling. Yes, it has some haunting music, some beautiful scenery and one cannot fault the authenticity of recreating the period of history. The problem comes when you start looking around for a dialogue, a story, any excitement or any involvement in the proceedings. There is an awful lot of people wistfully staring at each other, a lot of trees blowing in the wind, rivers, birds, spiders and, well, wildlife. It seems as if the director is waiting for a story to come to him, and in the mean-time, look at that flock of birds. Another thing that strikes you, is the lack of a script. I think in the 2 1/2 excruciatingly boring hours of film, there must have been about 100 words said. Ethereal musings like "Who is he?" and "Where did he come from?" and pretensions like "What is life, Mother?" come drifting down from the screen. Meanwhile, from around the theatre I could hear moviegoers asking each other "What the hells going on?", "What are those birds doing?" and "shall we go?". I am sorry to the other reviewers who have rated this film so highly, as I can see what they are saying to some extent. The problem I have is that to make the points that this film is ramming down our throats - about the destruction of innocence and good-nature vs. evil-"civilisation" - it does not need such a deadly passive storyline to do it. I cannot help feeling that the director was doing everything he possibly could to stop the film being labelled as an "action" movie. He dampens every potentially good action scene so that it doesn't get too exciting. Even the few battles there are, are short-lived 'hand-bag' affairs where no one seems to get hurt - It's like watching "Pocahontas and the A-Team". Unfortunately, in striking the balance between poignancy, style and story, he got it completely wrong. Movies like "Last of the Mohicans" have beautiful scenery, a love story, excellent action sequences, script and makes all the points this movie tries to in much less time. I fell asleep in this movie. Granted I was quite tired, but this movie pushed me over the edge. I fell asleep at the bit where the girl meets King James until she is walking in the garden having been reunited with Cap'n Smith. I cannot imagine anything interesting happened in the time I was out and I am pretty sure I will never find out as I will not be revisiting this disastrously overrated movie.

This was incredible. I'm living at the moment in the awful urban sprawl of Dublin , Ireland and took myself right into the inner city to see this and, to my surprise, found myself being transported not only to another land but also to another time. When I came out, I was in a trance for the rest of the day, pining for a land and society that is no more and dreaming sweet dreams of angelic Pocahontas, gentle John Rolfe and ruggedly genuine John Smith. All three of course excellently played by Q'uiranka (is that right), Christian and even Colin who, though the accent may have been shaky, captured perfectly what it would have been to be in John Smith's situation. Mallick, of course, is a genius and when his films are this good they're well worth the decade or so of waiting. Also, I don't know who the director of photography was but what a job they did, possibly the most beautiful film ever put on screen. All in all, a masterpiece which I'll carry with me every step I take in this ofttimes sorry world.

source: The New World

this was one of the most boring movies I have ever seen. it it not a piece of art at all, just boring...... whats art about filming the woods with sad words in the background for the 2nd movie in a row?? the director just points out the best parts of the Thin Red Line and tries to overcome them by adding even longer and used scenes! I loved the Thin Red Line, but this is just a copy of that wonderful movie, Malick is just trying to impress everyone by making a "more fantastic" movie. almost everyone in the cinema where laughing of most of the scenes and everyone was relieved when the movie was finished, and it was a LOT of peoples, swearing and laughing! try making something original the next time.........

I guess this film did not impress me very much because I saw so many film connected wit Pochohontas and events surrounding her. Yes scenery is great and acting is not bad, but how many of this did we see? Cartoon and everything. When I actually went to the Jamestown and saw all that is connected with her, tour guide explained us in not very happy voice, that events portrayed in the cartoon and in this film is not entirely accurate. So if you are into historic films of discovery of America, this is a film for you. Otherwise, you can live without loosing sleep even if you do not see it.

Holy yipes! I have seen some boring movies before but this soporific mess is the topper. How does a director graduate from film school having learned only the close up shot? And what excuse can there be for a movie score with only one musical note? Its like listening to the test pattern noise on the TV when you wake up at 4AM on the couch. Even the perpetually grey weather is boring in this film. I haven't checked my watch that much since New Year's Eve. If you need to be rendered comatose for some surgical procedure, then this film is for you. Never have I posted a comment on a movie before. However, in this example it is plain and simply a civic duty since this film risks creating large squads of somnambulistic zombies who might attempt to drive home, wide-eyed but oblivious, from their local theaters. Of course, nature lovers will perhaps be interested in the many long views of trees, grass and water but staring at your wallpaper will be both cheaper and more fun.