Review – The New World

The Mission is one of my all-time favorite movies, so I had high hopes that Terrence Malick might at least bat one into the same ballpark with Roland Joffé. I figured that because the themes of both movies were similar (the disasters of conflict between European colonists and indigenous people in the Americas), perhaps they would be comparably good. I figured wrong. The cinematography was on par; indeed, the visuals in this one were actually a bit more impressive overall, as the filtering wasn’t quite as blatant. Beyond that, however, this outing was dull to the very verge of unwatchable. The basic story is the Pocahontas tale, told from first encounter with the English all the way to her death in Britain years later. And it feels like it takes years to get the story told, the pace is so laconic and the dialogue so fragmentary and odd. Though this scores a couple of points based solely on technical quality, with better acting and a better script this could have been a much better movie. Mildly amusing