No wonder we didn't hear hardly anything about The New World. It was absolutely awful. If you really, really want to see this film and don't want spoilers, then do not read on. It was such a DRAG, had the simplest, most dull story, and...honestly, what.the.fark.? I don't get the POINT that this movie was made. Don't see it. Don't THINK about seeing it. I almost fell asleep, but sheer curiousity egged me on. Even in the last five minutes, I kept thinking, maybe it'll get better. I should've known.... it's written and directed by the same guy that did The Thin Red Line, Terrence Malick, and I loathed that movie (except for this kickarse song that Hans Zimmer did for the soundtrack).

That reminds me - the music in New World? OMG. It's the same, repetitive, swirling background music the ENTIRE TIME; no theme that stood out. It was typical James Horner... I knew the soundtrack was by him, four seconds into the movie. I like some of his stuff, Braveheart and Glory especially, but... he's not very creative. Once in a while he does a great theme, then the rest is exactly.the.same. I spent all that time downloading this dang movie and wasted two and a half hours of my time watching it. *SO annoyed*

All Colin Farrell did was stare off into space and ogle this girl. The girl rarely spoke... and there were all these stupid, poetic narrations that made no sense... The gist of the movie was that John Smith + Englishmen came to New World. Indians were curious at first. Then they made a lot of noise, cut down trees, and were mean. So Indians wanted them gone. But John Smith made friends with girl. BILLIONS of scenes of them just slowly strolling through various natural settings and staring meaningfully at each other (while that flimsy, repetitive background music played). Girl helps settlers grow corn and her father and the people disown her. Various shots of tall grass, swamps, and beaches. John Smith leaves and tells dude to tell girl two months later that he's dead (whe he's not). She grieves and pouts and feels sorry for herself. Somewhere along the line, she learned to speak and read English. Enter Christian Bale, two thirds into the movie. He was extremely attractive (hot dang, I never realized his eyes were so green!), but it was all so stupid. He marries her and has a kid. She then finds out John Smith is still alive and grows distant from Christian. Off they go to England to meet the King and Queen for some strange reason unbeknownst to me. She meets John Smith again but now finds that she is over him, and finally moves on and accepts Christian as being her love. Then she dies due to having "fallen ill". A ship sails away, then the screen goes black. It doesn't fade out, it abruptly goes BLACK. Then they show the credits with no music but the sound of crickets. Oh I forgot to mention, Wes Studi made a few appearances and was really awesome and good lookin', but I have no idea what his significance was.

And that's another thing - the Indians in this? They portrayed them as extremely PRIMITIVE people who seemed to have no knowledge whatsoever, save for building huts, painting themselves, and skinning animals. They danced around the white men curiously whilst poking at them and making strange sounds, and acted like cavemen with hardly any dialect or sign of intelligence (except for their king guy, he was the smart one I guess). I was not thrilled by that portrayal. They were hot though. I read on the film's IMDb message boards that, in the DVD extras, the Powhatan Indians had viewed the movie and given it their approval, and were involved in the making of the movie quite a bit, but..... I wish we'd seen more of THEIR thoughts and dialogue, and a bit more from their point of view. It might've made it worth seeing! This was written from the outsiders' POV, the white man, and you don't know much about the Indians or what they are thinking. This movie just fuels my bitterness even more, that the whites just marched into this country as if they owned the place and acted as if the Indians, the righful owners of this land, were the enemy. That burns me and always has. But I'll save that rant for another time.

Anyway, after reading the above, you do not have to see the movie, I mean... that was it. If you've seen this movie and liked it, don't let all this bother you as it's only my opinon.

*exasperated sigh* I'm going to bed.