There will be what?

Rating: 3/10 (13 August 2008)

I'm not prone to reviewing movies, as I do not consider myself in any way a movie buff. However as a someone who humbly believes he possesses a modicum of intelligence, I felt compelled to indicate my absolute indifference as to this particular film, especially in light of the hype it has received.
There Will Be Blood seems to fall into that category of "a movie that makes you think." But what about? One feels little sympathy for any of the characters, save perhaps for the little boy (whose role never manages to take the brave leap into being meaningful); there's certainly no moral message (all evangelicals are fakes?); and the obvious political message (money makes people greedy and corrupt) is not exactly new nor convincingly displayed. Plainview is not a sympathetic character from the beginning, and although he becomes more overtly malicious as the movie progresses (killing people as opposed to beating them), there's no real sense of him changing as a person.
I've watched about half of IMDb's top 250 list, and for the most part I've been quite happy with the community picks. This movie's success simply bewilders me.
4/10 - Like movie theater popcorn: somewhat palatable while you're eating, and wholly unsatisfying afterward.
(Finally, for those who were wondering, the noisy violin playing is from the third movement of Brahms' Violin Concerto - it's a wonderful piece of music, used entirely out of character and out of place in TWBB, and with poorly engineered sound to boot)