Good, but not great. Here's why it's not great

Rating: 7/10 (31 January 2011)

This was an interesting film. It didn't lose my attention at any point, despite its lengthy running time. I won't talk much about what I liked since almost everyone likes it, so that's not interesting.
My gripes, big and small are:
* It feels like propaganda. Did NOTHING good EVER happen in the time period covered by this film? After a while, I actually expected zombies. We got pretty close with a hand thrust up from the ground, reports of cannibalization, and seemingly starved people walking about. Surely somebody was happy. Systems that don't make anyone happy don't last long.
* At the beginning, it's never really shown why there's unrest in the first place. You don't overthrow the czar for nothing, and you want to replace it with something, but what? Sure, authorities violently suppressed a peaceful protest, but something was going on before that to get people involved. We hear words, but don't see it.
* There are many characters in this film, and for some reason we're obligated to learn their first, middle, and last names. Why why WHY?! The first hour of the film is made a mystery by this nonsense. Then, later, at least one character gets an alias, but at least he's physically marked so you can identify him.
* The Pasha character is inexplicable. Is he just a nut? (After 3+ hours, this should be clear, right?)
* Zhivago's brother is also inexplicable. Why does he keep meddling? (After 3+ hours, this should be clear too, right?)
* Actually, Zhivago and Lara are kind of hard to understand too, and this is supposed to be the heart of the story. Apparently they fell in love while working together, but we don't really feel any of that passion. Of course, we never really feel the passion with Zhivago's wife either. Where did she even come from? Was she his step-sister? This film is so long, I forget.
* I wish they had spent more time on the orphaned girl. This should really have been her story, and she's the only character out of all of them that I felt anything for. I felt a bit ripped off that so much of the story during her lifetime was omitted.
* Boys are not women, and they shouldn't be dubbed by women. We can find children who can read lines for today's films. What the heck was going on in the 1960s? As with many films of the time, the kids in this one just sound creepy.
* Lara's theme might have been novel back then, but it's tired now, and sounds like a cheap pasta restaurant. It's really aggravating the 14th time you hear it, especially when it appears for almost no reason except to tell you "well this scene is depressing, but think of Lara right NOW, and then back to depressing NOW". It's so heavy-handed.
In summary, I'm glad I saw it. But despite being big, it is not great.