The New World

So, The New World… where do I start? It’s visually great. The way Malick captures the connection between the tribes, nature, and the land makes it easy to get lost in the world he’s building. But the story? Yeah, it could’ve used some serious work. The first act kicks things off strong. You get this detailed look at the tribes and their initial encounters with the English colonists. There’s this whole adventurous vibe, like you’re about to watch an epic exploration story unfold. But then the movie pivots hard into the second act and starts focusing on Captain John Smith and Pocahontas. Okay, I get it, their relationship is important, but it feels like the broader story gets pushed to the side. And then halfway through that act, Captain Smith is out, and suddenly it’s all about Pocahontas and her new romance with John Rolfe. By the time we hit the final act, it’s entirely about Pocahontas, her life in England, and her trying to find her place in this new world. The whole movie feels like it keeps changing its mind about what it wants to be. That’s where it lost me a bit. What started as this epic about cultures clashing and survival turns into a love story, and then into a drama about identity and loss. Don’t get me wrong, the individual pieces are interesting, but together? It’s messy. It feels like Malick didn’t know what direction to take the story, so he just went with all of them. The plot kind of fizzles out—like, what’s the point of it all? The English colonize the land, force the indigenous people to adapt, and then it ends with Pocahontas raising a kid with an Englishman in England. Now, to be fair, the production is stunning. The costumes, the set design, the overall atmosphere... Even though I’m no expert on the tribes or their customs, the emotional connection is there. You can tell a lot of care went into making this world feel real. The cinematography is next-level. Malick knows how to make every shot look like a painting, and that’s something I appreciated even when the story wasn’t holding my attention. But ultimately, while the movie’s storytelling style works, it’s dreamy and poetic, the overall plot just needed more focus. It starts as one thing, shifts to another, and ends as something else entirely. It’s like it can’t decide what it wants to say, and that’s frustrating because it had so much potential.

TkA

1/10

7/30/2026

**Wait for cable/DVD.** This would have been a totally awesome movie if the year was 1913, and they showed it in full color - it would have stood as the movie to beat for decades! But it's not. I saw this movie and i thought it was alright at the start, but it was hard to understand the dialouge and there was a lot of voice overs too, which didn't help too much. I don't know the real story of Pochoantas, and i guess if i did the movie would have made more sense. Anyway after watching about 1h 30m of this movie i got really bored and i started skipping a little bit ahead, and as it went on i started skipping a bit more ahead with increasing intervals until the movie was over. I compressed the last hour into about 20 minutes, and got most of the idea. But i tell you if this was a movie i went to see in the theater, i would have walked out for sure. This is like the first movie i've ever watched that i actually didn't want to watch anymore. I'm glad downloaded it instead and didn't pay to watch this movie. Hollywood films have been sucking a lot lately, which is why so many people are downloading flicks instead - they're tired of being ripped off! People want to have a good time in the theater, not pay 10 bucks to nap in an uncomfortable char, or get utterly bored to death. I'll give this movie another chance if they show it on cable or if I find the DVD out on the street. Hopefully it might be a better with the subtitles, and the ability to play 2x 3x speed.