A spectacular and powerful film, if not unfocused.

Rating: 9/10 (26 May 2014)

Darren Aronofsky does well to create a visually stunning film, along with Clint Mansell's potent and effectual score. I would see unfocused as a fair criticism of The Fountain, but it is also ambitious, poetic, effecting, interpretive, and spurs debate.
A second viewing after watching supplementary "explanation" videos helps enhance and focus the experience, allowing the viewer to pick up on repeating visual nuances and construct an interpretation themselves. I would like to have seen many themes and ideas explored other than mortality and coming to terms with your transience.
While it is often compared with Cloud Atlas, its only similarity is in premise; the execution is of a very different style, the thematics are similarly "deep" to those new to experimental cinema but are vastly different in detail, and the method with which interpretations can be drawn are much more literal. Both seem to be hated by critics, but both are powerful epics.
To call The Fountain a failure is understandable, in essence it is, but only because its ambitions are so infinite that if it did meet expectations it could quite easily be one of the best films of the 21st century.
It was likely cut and played with hugely from Aronofsky's initial plans. It does feel like a 3 hour epic that was cut into a 1.5 hour risk due to reasonable worries about box office. Maybe one day the film will be revisited and a very extended cut will be released, that will be the film Aronofsky wanted, intended and wasn't allowed to make.
It is also one of the few films that I do truly believe are underrated by critics - for which I give it a 9 rating, out of sympathy, over a 7 or 8 star review.