Negative Positive
Title: Deliberately Heavy Handed and Obtuse
Review: I thought the movie was visually and thematically interesting, but I really didn't enjoy the method of story telling Aronofsky used, or the heavy handedness he employed in trying to get us to understand his point.I left feeling as though the separate time lines had been shuffled so as to deliberately obfuscate the themes. Opening with the Conquistador thread, for example, killed my suspension of disbelief with all of its glaring historical flaws until it was later framed as fictional. Something was always being hidden from the viewers, but these secrets never carried much 'pow' upon revelation. It's as though Aronofsky believes that by presenting a good theme in a confusing manner it somehow becomes better.I'm a fan of obfuscation when it makes a better movie, such as Memento, but this one just didn't do it for me. If you liked the presentation that's fine, but people who didn't aren't necessarily idiots.
Is the review positive or negative? 