Now, I love science fiction, and when I saw the visuals for The Fountain (even though it tanked at the box office) I was super excited. It received a mixed rating from critics, but made it into the 100 top science fiction flicks (chosen by users) for Rotten Tomatoes, so it was high on my list. I've been living in science fiction land the last month, due to the fact I'm producing a science fiction film called Jathia's Wager and have written several other sci-fi shorts in the last few months.

I saw some pictures from the movie and they were absolutely beautiful, so I sat down watched it. I expected to be lifted into a world of science fiction fantasy with dreamy futuristic landscapes and some type of deep, psychological plot line (due to the conflicting messages in the critics' responses about the films meaning). Boy was I in for a surprise in a negative way.

The movie sucked. And I mean REALLY sucked. It's a complete waste of time and a pointlessly trivial, excessively goofy film that took itself entirely too seriously, filled with eastern mysticism clap-trap mixed with Christian mythology all set in a strange metaphorical space. If you stripped away all the mysticism and spiritual metaphors), this film is utter nonsense. Considering that the metaphors themselves (to me) are also utter nonsense, you end up with an incoherent peace of garbage in a pretty wrapper.

As one of the critics in the Hollywood Reporter stated with regard to one of the quotes from the movie, "death is the path to awe...shucks, isn't that what suicide bombers are led to believe?"

The main story centers on an experimental doctor studying brain surgery while his wife is dying from a brain tumor. She has only a short time to live and he is frantically looking for a cure.

The movie is filled with emotional scenes of her and him crying and having deep conversations; unfortunately, they came off as painful and depressing, but not very intriguing, because they spend almost no time developing the characters in any meaningful way.

Even after the movie is over, you wonder who they hell the doctor is. Why are they in love? What does she like to do? All the regular questions or quirks go completely unanswered as the writer / director try to hit you in the head with the weak plot and emotional tensions it's suppose to cause over and over again.

If that wasn't bad enough, they put this tragedy to work in two other simultaneously absurd stories that are going on at the same time as the first.

1. Follows a conquistador as he searches for the fountain of youth to save Spain (WTF?). I know the fountain is a thing of legend, so fun to explore in fantasy, but believe me, in this movie it's just a weird plot and again the writer / director is just trying to use these strange plot setups to bombard you with the emotional question the characters are forced to answer, but the thin setups come off as over the top, with an abundance of mystic metaphors that make for a weak plot.
2. Follows a bald spaceman who eats the bark of a tree supposedly imbued with his true love's spirit, tattoos the years of her death into his arms, sits in the lotus position and eventually ascends to heaven (believe me it's even weirder then it sounds).

If these three intertwined stories sound weird enough, wait until you get all the spiritual BS that's shown in the movie, things like "creation through death", an obsession with "blood sacrifice" ( the main character slits the throat of an Aztec priest for no apparent reason before finding the fountain). "Enlightenment," and "beauty in death" are other consistent themes.I firmly believe that if you're using a movie to make some type of "profound" point that your film should be strong enough to be entertaining and enjoyable to all types of viewers, from those that don't understand the point you're trying to make to those who disagree with your conclusion or philosophy, but still enjoy the journey and are able to suspend disbelief.

I browsed through the forums at Rotten Tomatoes and it's about an even split. Half the people HATED the movie and half the people LOVED it. So if you read this review and think you'd HATE it, don't see it 'cause you're probably right. If you're the type of person who likes nonsensical films steeped in spiritual metaphor, then see this one, 'cause statistically, you'll love it.