Supereye

Rating: Null/10 (1 December 2013)

The good news first. Malick has won this round of cinematic evolution. His camera is all over this Hollywood juggernaut (see also Les Miserables), in the shots of laundry fluttering in the wind, in the reflections of sunlight on window glass, etc. I celebrate this eye because it goes past Kubrick's framed beauty to reflect on an awareness of the intermediate space, creating rich inner explorations.
The cinematic evolution is the same one going on since the transition to sound and the same one that is carrying us to threedimensional narrative space; a better embodied exploration of worlds. The same hero myths persist in this journey, they are always a vessel for anxieties. Here we have a typical hero's journey, boring of itself but expected.
The bad news? It's in the hands of a man who creates visual volume, never exploration. Malick's camera is used here as wallpaper, simply to cover surfaces, which defeats the whole idea. And he overdoes the destruction and exposition. It's the most mind-numbing thing I have seen to this day in terms of sheer visual volume, a dubious honor. Nearly half of the film is devoted to constant eruptions in a subjective eye, exploding cinematic matter.
The fact that in twenty years time what we see here will be looked back as obsolete and that I'll be here to see this new blockbuster cinema tickles me ever so slightly. Just what is it going to consist of? Intriguing to imagine.
A last observation. Nolan has also won this round. This isn't something I celebrate simply because I can't muster much excitement for his area of expertise, narrative architecture. But he has won and it must be noted. You'll see all over this (see also the recent Bond) his now famous scheme of anchored narrative, this is where he drops usually as many as three anchors in the story and drags in parallel; this is where as the Joker is about to storm the Dent fundraiser, we see the judge escorted to her car and handed the envelope, and the police commissioner is about to have the poisoned scotch.
Malick and Nolan are the superpowers driving the cinematic world these days. One lives in the eye, the other in the mind. One tries to create a possible world for that eye, the other believes a world is the sum of its concrete parts. One finds reflection by taking a leap of faith, the other has to know it all before he can construct it. One a calligrapher, the other a geometer. Who's going to prevail?