Movie Mondays - The Fountain, or How I Was Tricked by EW

I only watched one movie again this weekend. I've actually been outside. Enjoying the nice weather and beautiful scenery. I know, it's not very pop culture related, so I hope I do not fail you all as the Titan of pop culture.

This weekend I watched The Fountain. It was billed as a science fiction drama and shows three parallel/intertwined stories about man and a woman set over the course of 1000 years. Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz star. It sounds like a great movie. I love sci-fi and time travel stories. I really enjoy Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. All the makings of a great movie, right?

Well, not really, this is actually a case where the sum of the parts is less that the total. There were Mayans and conquistadors, a modern scientist attempting to cure cancer, and a futuristic tree in a space bubble flying into a star. Each one of these stories might have made a great movie (well, maybe not the tree in the space bubble, that was pretty weird), but together, it wasn't great.

There are themes that are obvious through each story, the tree, the man and woman, and immortality. I'm sure there are deeper meanings that I miss. I am not an art critic, and frankly, not the best film critic either, but I it seemed as though I needed to be to really understand the movie. The romance was quite sweet, but ultimately, it was a confusing mess that wanted to be an Important Film, but I don't think was.

Yes, it's all this weird.

Before I started writing this review I went on to Rotten Tomatoes to check The Fountain's rating. I assumed it would be pretty high, because that was what I remembered when it first came out. Well, no, it was at 51%, not great. And among the Top Critics, 26%. Not good at all. I scrolled down the list to see why I thought I wanted to see it. Ah, that's it, the EW reviewer gave it a B+, which is pretty good for them. They tricked me! Oh well, they usually steer me true, so I will give them a pass this time.