I have watched Terry Gilliam's Twelve Monkeys (1995) and Brazil (1980), both of which I found very visually striking and with a good, engaging story. But this newer effort by the director gave me mixed opinions. A half of me says that the film has something wrong with the pacing. As a viewer, I was impatient for the story to really pickup but never really does so to last second of the film. But another half of me says that perhaps the gradual pacing of the story has something to do with the emphasis on the main character played by Christoph Waltz, who has been living a dull, mechanical life. Maybe the film is suppose to work in way that the viewer gets to experience this feeling.
Whatever the original intentions of the film are, currently, the audience seems to be divided as well on whether to place this as good or bad. It holds a 6.1 rating in IMDb (as of March 3, 2018), which is fair, a 50 % on Rotten Tomatoes' Tomatometer, and a score of 50 on Metacritic which indicates mixed reviews.
Though the middling reception, considering Terry Gilliam's positive track record as a director, the strength of the visual aspect, the timelessness of the questions it asks, and generally the sense of ambiguity, The Zero Theorem is the looks like the kind of movie that can garner more appreciation through the years. But like the main character, Qohen, it has to prove the seemingly unprovable as of now and be able to connect and grow with its audience. A rewatch of the movie can get this started.
Whatever the original intentions of the film are, currently, the audience seems to be divided as well on whether to place this as good or bad. It holds a 6.1 rating in IMDb (as of March 3, 2018), which is fair, a 50 % on Rotten Tomatoes' Tomatometer, and a score of 50 on Metacritic which indicates mixed reviews.
Though the middling reception, considering Terry Gilliam's positive track record as a director, the strength of the visual aspect, the timelessness of the questions it asks, and generally the sense of ambiguity, The Zero Theorem is the looks like the kind of movie that can garner more appreciation through the years. But like the main character, Qohen, it has to prove the seemingly unprovable as of now and be able to connect and grow with its audience. A rewatch of the movie can get this started.