Aronofsky’s The Fountain - Is It Good or Bad?
It’s getting harder and harder to tell. The movie has been cheered at Comic-Con, booed in Venice and most recently in Toronto at press screenings some people hissed while others walked out. That’s seems like an extraordinarily unprofessional way for the press to behave.
If nothing else, all this controversy is creating interest as apparently all 287 seats were taken for the screenings in two theaters at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The Fountain is Aronofsky’s science fiction epic starring Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. During the movie, Jackman plays characters in three different time periods (spanning 1,500 years). In each period he is trying to save the woman he loves.
At least one Canadian critic has been quoted as saying “Ugh, it’s just incomprehensible.” Unfortunately I find that particular criticism fairly easy to believe. While it has a good cast and almost everyone agrees that it looks good, the plot description alone speaks to some of the worst elements of science fiction (the idea being more important than the story), which isn’t very encouraging for an interesting movie.
There will be one more screening later this week, but we won’t really know if The Fountain is good or bad until it’s public release on November 22nd.
Eoghann Irving is amongst other things the creator and Editor of Solar Flare. He has a life long interest in all forms of science fiction and fantasy and a pressing need to share this interest with anyone who will listen. Find out more at his personal website eoghann.com..
4 Comments, Comment or Ping
DrObviousSo
A ‘thinking’ sci fi movie that confuses critics doesn’t exactly sound like a bad thing to me
Sep 14th, 2006
Eoghann
That’s why I’m keeping an open mind on it until it’s actually released. I’m just a bit concerned because some of these descriptions make my picture a movie that’s like 96 minutes of 2001’s end sequence.
That’s a little too trippy for my tastes.
Sep 14th, 2006
KB
Hey…I wonder how that last screening went…
It’s weird because I think the movie looks great and I cannot see how the story
line could be so complex. From the look of things, it seems the movie has a unique
spin, distinguishing itself from other romance, sci-fi films…
What do you think?
Sep 29th, 2006
Eoghann
I’m really not sure what to think still. It has some very enthusiastic supporters but there’s a lot of negative reviews out there too. I’m getting the impression that this movie is very stylized and I think that will put a lot of people off.
Sep 29th, 2006
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