The Tree of Life from Terrence Malick

[A Robot Bit Me]

The first half hour of this movie is indefensibly overwrought and silly. CG dinosaurs, Malick? Really, dude?

The last half hour is almost as ridiculous. And the use of water in nearly every single shot, my God, WE GET IT.

[A Robot Bit Me]

If I really wanted to be a dick, I'd mention the dreadfully predictable "Terry'z Oscar Playlist [1]" classical music selections. If I wanted to.

[Thief Silver]

I heard the review of it on NPR, and I don't think I've ever heard of a worse sounding movie. But the review could have been terrible.

[Dolemite]

Dying to see this. The trailer alone had me hooked.

The trailer reminded me of the short film the art teacher shows her students in Ghost World.

[A Robot Bit Me]

Pretty much.

[Compass]

I've noticed arjue has the worst, most pretentious taste in movies on this board. His recommendation alone is usually grounds to skip. No offense.

[arjue]

I'm sorry Compass, this movie doesn't have any little girls to ogle, though its got plenty of young boys.

I wasn't a fan of the stretched out ending, which i found far more ridiculous and heavy handed than the start, which i didn't think was any more ridiculous than the start of 2001. I guess its just a matter of how much of that kind of thing you can tolerate. I totally agree about the soundtrack though, the classical music choices were crass. Still, the good far outweighed the bad. The cinematography was absolutely outstanding, as was the acting. But if you'd rather be a douche and niggle at its downfalls then go ahead, this is TNL after all.

Heaven forbid someone tries to do something different or interesting. Don't worry, Transformers 3 is in 3D, so you will be able to see shit shake on a new axis!

[A Robot Bit Me]

It's fine that he tried something different and interesting. Traditional film language was, to Malick, inadequate to tell his story, so he invented his own way to speak. My problem isn't with his manner of speaking, but that he spoke too much. And I'm not talking about the overall length of the movie.

He also spoke too directly at times, as he did through Pitt's character who just as well should have worn a t-shirt that said "I'm with The Son and The Holy Ghost."

[A Robot Bit Me]

I didn't at all find on the screen the emotion of the script, which is the most magnificent one that I've ever read. A clearer and more conventional narrative would have helped the film without, in my opinion, lessening its beauty and its impact. Frankly, I'm still trying to figure out what I'm doing there and what I was supposed to add in that context! What's more, Terry himself never managed to explain it to me clearly.

Me too, Sean. Me too.