How the mighty have fallen...!!!

Rating: 4/10 (26 April 2006)

Yes, cinematographically it is picturesque... But we know that this is what Mallick can do well. The stroke of genius about The Thin Red Line was its mixing of this slow paced absorbing approach with the white knuckle riding, fast paced editing of the war scenes: beautiful, but dangerous at the same time! The New World however seems to have missed out the danger and gone for a simple depiction of do-cu-drama styling. Thats fine if there's something to see... The starvation and slow death which plagued these early settlements in the colonies doesn't exactly make for riveting viewing.
How the mighty have fallen? Well, like Wolfgang Peterson (Troy? What the hell was that!), Mallick seems to have sunk into a half-hearted idiom, over confident of his natural style and ability to hold attention. Unfortunately it is the audience who lose out.