The New World

Before watching this movie, there were two things that I knew for a fact:

1. I'm not a fan of Colin Farrell.
2. I didn't like 'The Thin Red Line', the only other Terrence Malick movie I've ever watched.

But I decided to be optimistic and watch it anyway because reviews say its an 'artsy' sorta movie and I'm a sucker for historical epics. Even more so if it involves some element of romance in it (think: The English Patient).

The movie starts off well enough. It's 1607, the English arrive, and the natives (called 'naturals' here) crowd around to see the huge ships sailing up to what would later be known as Jamestown. Enter Captain John Smith (Colin Farrell with shaggy hair), who was to be executed for mutiny but later saved by a sealed order from the Virginia Company which stated he was to hold some position within the new colony. On a mission to save the colony from starvation, Capt Smith was captured by the natives but his life was saved by a native princess (whose name was never mentioned in the movie but is later seen in the credits as 'Pocahontas') . I actually enjoyed this part of the movie. It was cool to see Capt Smith clad in knight-like armor fending off attacks from the natives before finally being captured. An added bonus is seeing Colin Farrell getting his @$$ kicked even with all that heavy armor. But the execution/saving part was even better. In fact, it almost has a certain romanticism to it. To quote from the movie, "At the moment I was to die, she threw herself upon me,"

Ahh, a princess saving a knight (stripped of his shining armor) from execution. How romantic could that get?

But IMHO everything went downhill after that. The slow, panning shots of nature and the princess and Capt Smith slowly getting intimate got pretty tiring by the end of the first hour or so (keeping in mind this movie lasts 2+ hours) and I was starting to wish for more action. What I got instead was more slowness...the movie seems to drag on after that. Until Captain Smith left and the princess was told he was dead. Enter Christian Bale as John Rolfe, who immediately fell in love with the princess and married her. The last part of the movie dealt with the Rolfes as they journeyed back to England and it was there that the princess (named Rebecca by now) learnt that Capt Smith wasn't dead and met him. The movie ended satisfyingly for me at least, as we discovered that although Rebecca probably still loved Capt Smith, she decided not to abandon her husband.

Overall though I'd give this movie a 6.5/10, thanks to Christian Bale (who was also great in Batman Begins and the earlier 1980s Spielberg flick Empire of the Sun) and Q'orianka Kilcher, who isn't really what I would call a stunning beauty, but the movie nevertheless managed to make her appear beautiful.

Best line:
John Rolfe (Christian Bale): "I think you still love the man. In my vanity, I thought I could make you love me and one can not do that or should not,"

Certainly food for thought, eh?

I admit, I didn't really like the movie but to put this really bluntly, the underdog still gets the girl, and that was enough for me. My thoughts at the end:

1. I still don't like Colin Farrell
2. The New World suffers from the exact same thing that made me dislike The Thin Red Line.

Well whaddya know? I believe I just wrote my first movie critic!