"The Fountain" was a disappointment. I expected a better movie. Sure it looked good, but the story was overly sentimental, there was no real drama, and the characters too thinly drawn. It probably would have been better if he had been able if his financing hadn't abandoned him and he wasn't forced to make a scaled-down version of it.

 

 

 

Well, I think it's because most would agree that it wasn't better than his other two.

 

Briefly put, the story wasn't compelling. The theme of "death is life" has been rendered many times to much better effect. (Whitman's "Song of Myself" for one). In fact, I think it's a line in "Pictures at an Exhibition" if I'm remembering my ELP correctly, cool, a prog connection .

 

Also, as I said earlier, the characters weren't developed enough. We were just supposed to go with the protagonist's obsession without really getting a sense of what was really driving him. Also, the relationship between the conquistador and the queen was of comic book depth (bad comic book depth; I realize there are good comic books, having collected them in the past).

 

I think the story needed to be better developed; that is, more scenes that better nuanced the character's motivations. That was what was missing. It's fitting that this was first made into a graphic novel, because that is what it felt like when it was over. I felt like I had just finished "Hellboy" or something. Good, but sort a hack job. Not a serious work of science fiction or art in general.

 

I expected something better; I think high expectations also played a part in my disappointment.

 

I would like to add that I think Aronofsky's plot technique of past (fiction) present (past) future (present) was ingenious and I really appreciated that. It's just that the story lacked something, imho.