Cinema 3D in sleep mode

Rating: 1/10 (11 August 2006)

Have you ever been to one of those 3D cinemas you see in amusement parks? Those domes you walk into and have a 360 degree screen, showing a first person perspective of a roller coaster ride, followed by a biplane flying through the Grand Canyon and so on? Well if you have, replace the roller coaster and canyon, with scenes of fields, woods, coastline, tribal village and a farm. Watch nothing happening for 2 hours, except those scenes switching, once in a while and you've just seen "The New World". Many of the scenes were very picturesque and there's no doubting the cinematography, but the movie has a very poor storyline, dis-jointed, very slow and no ultimate conclusion of any significance.
There was very little dialogue. The actors were not required to act because most of the scenes were deliberate moments of nothing much going on, presumably so the audience can appreciate the cinematography some more? When you look at a nice landscape painting, you appreciate it for what it is and eventually move on to the next painting to appreciate that too. This film says "look at how good we are at filming scenery" and then says it again, and again and again et al. It totally neglects that a film should be a story and not a collection of visuals with a rumour of a story thrown in to justify more scenery.
Many people were bored and quite frankly, that's the main achievement of this film. Sad really, with so many good actors, being asked to do so little.
The film had excellent cinematography, but that's it. A good film contains more than just showing the ability of the camera crew. It needs a good story, accompanying dialogue and good actors delivering believable performances.
This was a natural history slide show, nothing more. Don't watch it. Go to a Cinema 3D and watch the biplane dive into the Grand Canyon. It's far more interesting, doesn't make an hour feel like a week and the scenery is far more spectacular than a field of tall grass.