The Fountain BOOED in Venice??

This just makes me want to see the movie more. :P

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Aronofsky is a bum. I'm glad his stupid movie got booed.

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I was about to say exactly the same thing Morphs.

It must be bloody AWESOME!

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Moriarty at aint-it-cool has an extremely positive review up, so don't lose the faith yet.

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Critic Pauline Kael said it was "a monumentally unimaginative movie" [6], and Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic called it "a film that is so dull, it even dulls our interest in the technical ingenuity for the sake of which Kubrick has allowed it to become dull." [7]
---so says Wikipedia about some of the initial reviews of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

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While it might be a bit premature to compare it to 2001, like rob did above, it's certainly more likely that, like 2001, The Fountain is being panned because people aren't getting it as opposed to it being a poor film.

At least, that's what I'm hoping. Pi showed that Aronofsky can keep his audience engaged with a weighty concept, and Requiem for a Dream proved that he can keep his audience riveted even when his characters are walllowing in misery and filth. So I'm inclined to believe that this will be a remarkable film.

As long as he doesn't try to pass off incoherent and condescending as complex and deep, like (and I know I'm going to get killed for this) Primer, then The Fountain will be great. I only hope that, in this age of kneejerk hater culture, if it really is a film on par with 2001, we recognize it as such.

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I just think "The Fountain" is gonna be one of those movies that divides people. Of course it got booed, but we'll be hearing the inevitable cries of masterpiece from a few people any day now, even the universally loathed "Southland Tales" had a few admirers.

Personally, I really like Aronofsky, "Pi" is one of the best of the micro-budget debut films that launched several filmmakers in the 1990s and "Requiem for a Dream" is an intense, unforgettable film. Yes, it has some visual gimmicks but they work and the film has a soul besides that. I look for "The Fountain" to be even better.

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It's funny how people who haven't even seen The Fountain are comparing it to 2001. Overhype can easily kill a good movie.

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If you want to see the (beginning anyway) of the other side of the story, look at the user comments on the IMDB page. You will get a few "inevitable cries of masterpiece" there. In any case, though, a movie which so vehemently divides both critics and audience alike, which this already seems to be doing, will be something worth giving a chance. And one must remember that 2001, and many of Kubrick's movies for that sake, did the same thing.

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JoBlo says: 8 out of 10

http://www.joblo.com/reviews.php?mode=joblo_movies&id=1454

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The Hollywood Reporter today compares it to Zardoz.

Why is it that when people compare things to Zardoz they never mean it in a good way?

Sigh.

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Now I am buying a copy for sure. David Jemeyson

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Aronofsky is such an original. I love the way he makes everything look like a Nike commercial. And the way he suggested, in Requiem for a Dream, that black people are especially sexual and animalistic. Or the way he thinks consumer culture is shallow. Wow. He's trendy. He's hip. He almost made a Batman movie. I like the guy a lot. Did I mention that he taught me a lot about surgery? You can make yourself just a LITTLE bit dumber by drilling into your forehead, for example. Darren Aronofsky. Cool.

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I completely agree with Alex... Primer was pretentious bullshit. There's a difference between attempting to be deep and ponderous, and actually throwing yourself out there for people to ponder and consider. I have faith in THE FOUNTAIN. I am cautiously optomistic. Films that divide people tend to be remembered quite fondly. Good films tend to divide people along the 'old school' and 'new school' lines, and the new school folks are the ones who will be writing the reviews of the future. We'll have to wait and see, regardless.

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