I can't help but wish I liked this more, and also kinda feel bad I don't at times. I'm all about a great director making his longtime passion project, we need more big swings from filmmakers and there are things I like in this. That out of the way...I expected this to be something of a mess, but I didn't expect to find it to be largely dull and only occasionally as crazy as others have made it out to be. It goes from being visually beautiful to looking strangely cheap and garish, has a lot of themes but doesn't seem to know how to express some of them in a coherent or interesting manner, and there's way too much speechifying about the future and debate. I've seen comparisons to "Southland Tales", but that movie-whatever problems I may have with it-is rarely dull and has better politics than this does (don't get me started on the cancel culture subplot.)
Maybe years from now I'll be proven wrong and it will turn out this is actually a work of genius. Hell, it already has passionate fans. Until then, I'll continue to think this is an ambitious but not very entertaining misfire from a great director. Maybe sometimes it's fine to say "well, at least you tried".
