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.