Not quite the Masterpiece

Rating: 3/10 (29 July 2006)

My wife and I got ready for this smart, artistic and romantic film that if you kept an open mind and allowed your senses to take in the movie, it would be a memorable experience. From the start of the movie I was blown away by the stunning visuals. Nature, in it's purest form. Where the movie began to lose me was the lack of an epic feel. America seemed to be confined to a river, the fenced in village of Jamestown and an Indian camp that could have been just a mile away. The visual expertise that started wore off quickly... the landscape never changed besides a brief stint of winter.
The most important aspect to a movie set in this genre and that appeals to the senses is the musical score. The mood setting music in The New World... is terrible. It truly is. I cringed constantly because the sounds of nature are overwritten with an orchestra that sounds like it's playing for a 1980's B movie. I am neither kidding or exaggerating. And this lost most of my appreciation for what the movie was attempting to accomplish. And, aside from a believable performance by Christian Bale and actress Q'Orianka Kilcher, the rest of the acting was not very good. Colin Farrell had only one look. A confused expression of sadness and loss.
If you want to see an entertaining movie about Pocahontas and John Smith, see Disneys animated version. If you want to see stunning, beautiful footage of nature, watch the first 5 minutes of New World, rewind, and repeat. The rest of the movie is not worth sitting through to get to Christian Bale and his above average performance.