Discover a film so marvellous and epic, that the whole time it’s playing… you’ll be looking at your watch. Okay, maybe I’m being too harsh. This film definitely gets an ‘A’ for effort. The filmmakers really tried to make a good movie, and it shows. But how a film can be so investing and yet so dull at the same time boggles my mind.

So what’s the story? Well, you tell me. Basically, there are six stories going on at once, all taking place in different time periods. At first, this isn’t too bad, as each setting looks different enough for you to distinguish. This film is kind of like an advanced version of ‘Cimarron’, but what made that movie work is that it was told in a linear style. This movie is three hours long, and constantly swapping between different stories is going to give you a headache. Let’s hope you can pay attention. The content of the stories is interesting at first, but after a while you just wish that these characters would just die already so that the movie would be over.

But this movie isn’t really all that bad, as it does have a lot of things going for it. Most noteworthy is the makeup, which will always leave you guessing at just who is playing who. The visual effects also deserve a special mention. The acting, though not the movie’s strongest suit, is also very good, especially from Halle Berry.

I clearly could tell that there was a lot of work that went into the film, and that the filmmakers were trying something different. But different doesn’t always work. I don’t hate the movie, as some do, but I just couldn’t get into it. If you liked it, good for you, but this movie is just not my cup of tea.

***