You'll have to apologise to those you live with if you rent this

Rating: 1/10 (25 November 2007)

Spurred on by high ratings from credible sources, I rented this movie with high hopes. However, I rapidly began to think that every quotation relating to this movie must have been taken out of context. So I came to good ol' IMDb and was astonished to find a rating over over 3/10 average - such a score can only be the result of studio spamming programs as The New World has to rank as the second worst film I have ever had the misfortune of watching.
I get the distinct impression we have a case of the Emperor's New Clothes here, where few people are afraid to run against a cast of largely credible actors, the hard work of getting the film made and the beauty of the scenery. Something that had the potential of Last of the Moh's or Apocolypto fell hugely flat. You can find better scenery in documentaries such as the BBC's Plant Earth or Blue Planet; you can find better scripts...in fact almost anywhere...and the jump cutting during dialogue exchanges which so appallingly gave away the 'cheating' in position of the characters was lamentable. The technical side of film-making should never detract from the viewing experience/story-telling, yet this was so flawed it made it hard to get into what little of a creaking story there was.
Overall, this was not a piece of entertainment. Nor was it factually correct enough to be worthy or educational in a 'not-for-profit' movie way. Just avoid this and invest your time elsewhere.