A Involving Imaginative Story

Rating: 9/10 (17 January 2019)

15 December 2012. Flaws aside, by the end of the movie there is a fundamental epistemological and for some a spiritual conundrum that underlies even the superficial but powerful experience of the movie itself. Even though the movie trailers are misleading and fail to capture the essence of the movie, even though the 3-D version technically falls short, where a stick use to prod instead becomes unfocused and fuzzy, the use of the extensive flashback is more distracting and lazy-minded, and the two intense physically animalistic deaths are censored unnecessarily, this movie contains a rich narrative, and a struggle for survival between man and beast, nature and rational, logical thought. Even though the movie didn't fully capture the embracing religion diversity of themes, perhaps the movie wasn't really supposed to be so all-encompassing.
There are suggestive themes and visions from the sci fi vision of Solaris (1972 and 2002), of the historical, haunting period film Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), and the animal movies of Dances with Wolves (1990) and Never Cry Wolf (1983). The movie would have likely been more powerful presented in its own chronologically evolving way, yet the story and the mystery is so powerful that can transcend the medium and create an intense, emotionally and intellectually compelling movie experience.