A Dull and Unpleasant Film for Angry Children Masquerading as Serious Art

Rating: 1/10 (6 April 2018)

Aronofsky once again proves his insistence on lumbering through exhausting mixed metaphor with the poetic subtlety of a 6-year-old with a sledgehammer as he attempts to 'say something' while saying absolutely nothing at all. And why he felt the need to publicly explain the not-subtle-at-all 'meaning' proves that he is clearly more interested in the commercial success of this 'serious art film' than his own artistic integrity. This is not 'art' film, and in fact is barely a coherent film at all. The performances are flat and inhuman. The cinematography is mostly very drab and lazy with a few interesting shots. The audio production is good, but certainly not good enough to carry this stupid film on its own. Ultimately, I think the fatal flaw is Aronofsky's desire to pick up a weighty philosophical lens and use it to examine absolutely nothing about humans and instead gives a them a treatment of tiresome contempt, which really only works as comedy. Unfortunately, the guy has to blabber on about how serious the film and its message are, so I even find it difficult to give him credit for that.
Spoiler Warning (if there can be spoilers for a film with such predictable non-plot)
If you have any knowledge of Christianity, the film's central conceit will be apparent within 5-10 minutes, and then you will watch as it is tediously played out toward an unsatisfying, nonsense conclusion. God is an artistic sociopath whose creations will destroy his most beloved creation, the world, over and over (I guess?). God as an insufferable toxic 'artist' with his muse 'mother earth' is a tired idea which frankly misses the point of religion entirely. The film dips its toes in deep moral and philosophical waters, but then seems content with standing there with wet feet staring back at the shore. Maybe it was just a problem of marketing, but I can't help but feel that the mis-marketing is due to the insistence of Aronosfky's own artistic ego.