Magellan

Audience Reviews

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M S @Littoral Jul 22 We watched for the first hour+, and NOTHING happened. I can see how it would be favored by critics due to cinematography, but the movie sucked. I got it because of critic's ratings, I will try not to make that mistake again. See more Henry D @Henry_Domke May 5 An immersive reimagining of what it might have been like to be Magellan, seeing what he saw and doing what he did. The radically slow pacing and minimal dialogue add to the feeling that we are there with him, experiencing the voyage moment by moment. It is not conventionally dramatic, but the stillness and restraint make it feel unusually real. See more MICHAEL H @starfirerider May 1 Painful is my first response. So much history and material to work with and the director chooses to load up with vacant posturing and inexplicable editing. The pace of the film was apparently meant to convey something other than to fill out an over-long dreary foregone opportunity to tell what should be an epic (and fascinating) tale. See more Bifo B @RT93724271 Apr 19 One caricature after another. This film consistently misses the opportunity to do something interesting in favor of stylistically detached but generic scenes. The wailing wives of conquistadores waiting on the beach? Fail. The naked natives dumbstruck at the appearance of the white man? Fail. The false bravado and cartographic confidence of conquest? Fail. While the European characters have more depth to their acting, they too are shallow stereotypes rubbing their palms plotting to subvert Medina and exploit the King's greed. What really cracked me up was that the native characters in the early scenes can't walk on bare ground without looking like they're wincing with every step :'D and the villages look like they were set up for a kid's play. Bad history, yes, and especially bad storytelling. But even if this is meant to be stylistically minimal and sparingly realistic, it's visually boring and narratively flat. See more Eames A @EamesAgu Apr 16 Missed opportunity. Nice cinematography and objective detached style. Good acting. But the storyline is obviously drenched in de-colonial theory, which is somewhat ironic since the Philippines had already been colonized by Muslims before, which had filtered somewhat to Cebu. So the only point of the movie is to take Magellan down a notch and recreate the myth of the noble pure savage, untainted by modern capitalism/colonialism. Which we know is a bunk marxist ideology. And we know the modern Philippines is a hybrid between East and West, just like Europe is a hybrid between Greece/Rome, Norse and Judeo-Christian culture. See more Gloria D @RT01709327 Apr 16 I was bored to tears and angered to swearing! After interminable minutes of hearing birds, wind, and water and looking at dead bodies and white men walking about desultorily without saying anything, I gave up on my hope that this might be something akin to Herzog's "Aguirre, the Wrath of God." Not even close! The only thing I got from this film was a sense that its makers were just pandering--pandering to pseudo-intellectuals, pandering to various types of minorities, and pandering to colonized and conquered groups. The acting was below mediocre. The very few that spoke were practically unintelligible and zombi-like. The majority of those who spoke Portuguese were not native speakers. They butchered the language and spoke with less conviction and expressivity than a bot. While one or two characters used period-appropriate language, the majority spoke in a completely anachronistic 21st century Brazilian-accented slang. A complete disappointment! See more Read all reviews

Magellan

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