Here’s another Idris Elba movie. I’m just such a huge fan of him. After “Beast” his newest movie is this and the trailer made me want to watch it so I was counting down the days until it’s released date. This movie is a Drama/Fantasy/Romance and it was directed by thee Legend George Miller (2015’s “Mad Max: Fury Road”) and written by him as well.
The movie starrs Idris Elba, Tilda Swinton (2021’s “The French Dispatch”), Alyla Browne (2021’s Amazon Prime’s “Nine Perfect Strangers”), Kaan Guldur (“Aquaman”), Megan Gale (“Mad Max: Fury Road”), just to name a few.
Onto the premise: A lonely scholar, on a trip to Istanbul, discovers a Djinn who offers her three wishes in exchange for his freedom.
It’s a good movie, that should have been excellent but ended up just “good”. It’s visually magnificent, it has very good acting and it’s basic idea is original and even poignant but. There are a few very big buts in stopping it from reaching the potential heights it should’ve reached.
It’s getting lost in its own meandering tale, though we’ve all figured out the point it wanted to make long before it spells it out on the screen.
It want’s too much to demonstrate it’s about storytelling so all the stories we see on screen are so heavily narrated that many of their charming characters end up as puppets with only glimpse of the character they should have, preventing us from really caring for them or in other words leaving us uninvolved with big chunks of the story.
The combination of a long meandering plot line that keeps the audience uninvolved is an obstacle almost no movie can survive.
If I did enjoy it it’s mainly because of the leading couple – Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton – no they’re not giving a gut wrenching performance – they’re simply very very professional keeping the convoluted plotline from losing us altogether anchoring the viewers to the story without turning it into a soap opera, and it could very easily turn into one so I’m definitely grateful for that professionalism.
I simply can’t help wondering what could have happened had it fulfilled the potential it most certainly has.
There are many idiosyncratic choices throughout Three Thousand Years which mark it as a passion project; it wouldn’t be surprising to learn that the film languished in development hell or lacked the proper budgeting for its globe trekking story. Whatever the case, the joy for the material is evident, alongside some extremely obtuse and unrelatable elements. It’s a strange film full of strange choices, zippy enough to be enjoyed in the moment but too jumbled for satisfactory mental congealment after the fact.
The film follows Alithea, a narrative scholar who uncorks The Djinn, a mystical being who has been imprisoned multiple times over thousands of years.
The Djinn recants his history to Alithea, detailing the many loves and tragedies he has catalyzed in three ancient societies. Alithea must choose her own three wishes to fulfill her soul’s most inner desire and help free The Djinn for all time.
There’s much to unpack and many varyingly effective elements, but Miller dooms himself from the start with an awkward and forced framing device.
Although the bulk of the story is The Djinn’s, the film forces Alithea’s point of view early, kicking off with one of her scholarly lectures and mind-numbing narration.
The perspective is ostensibly chosen to build her character, but it’s so far removed from the meat of the film that the viewer is immediately jarred when the gears shift.
The crux of the Three Thousand Years takes place in flashback, until it shifts again from The Djinn’s vantage to Alithea’s contemporary life, which is just as unsatisfying as the opening act; firstly because The Djinn is a more interesting character in every regard, and secondly because there’s no thematic or narrative foothold anchoring the audience. We’re thrust in, taken out, and thrust in again without explanation or purpose. Additionally, I pray we’re not slipping back into years just prior when nearly every film opened with narration. Narration can kick rocks.
Three Thousand Years opens and closes wobbly, but the majority of the film works because the narrative is taken out of Alithea’s hands and placed into The Djinn’s. Idris Elba’s Djinn is a sympathetic and vulnerable figure. He’s a perfect physical choice for the role, strong enough to give off an aura of invincibility and inherent strength, but compassionate and fragile enough to create a sense of danger and powerlessness. His deep, silky voice is also perfect, because the film is essentially a spoken word album with accompanying visuals.
Although narration should kick rocks, his perpetual monologue is necessary to keep Miller’s intended pace, his dialogue isn’t gratingly mystical or overwrought, and he tells his story in a controlled and relaxed manner. As far as narration goes, it’s a reasonable middle ground.
There may be a cut of Three Thousand Years wherein the fat is eliminated, narration is removed, and we simply watch The Djinn’s story unfold in a more natural and visual style…but there may also be a cut wherein the story is unchanged, the narration is removed, and the viewer never has a prayer of figuring out what the hell is going on. Again, this version is a reasonable middle ground.
Among the chief pleasures of Three Thousand Years’ high points are the unpredictability of the tales and the ever-shifting dynamics of power through the ages. Period piece politics are always fun because viewers are treated to the many elaborate and savage methods ancient monarchs used to keep power before the iron rule of law. Watching the uncertainty, paranoia, betrayal, and succession of each era unfurl is a blast, and the vignettes possess a streamlined, concise quality which the film as a whole lacks. Throwing a Djinn into the cutthroat mix doesn’t hurt the intrigue either.
Miller’s direction is also assured and dynamic. There are a host of camera movements, some subtle, some not, which keep the viewer engaged and alert. There are dozens of stylized scene and shot transitions which broaden the scope of the film and aid in its impressive continuity.
For all the magic, mischief, and mayhem of the tales, the affair could’ve become deliriously ungrounded or unconvincing, like recent MCU films, but Miller knows (perhaps better than anyone) how to establish and accentuate atmosphere among utter madness. Editor Margaret Sixel also deserves praise for allowing the film to breathe.
The atmosphere of the film is laudable, and the costume and set designs are creatively amusing, but there is a visual nag throughout. The CGI here is plentiful and terrible. It’s used for cobwebs, bottles, battles, and feet, among other things, and it’s distractingly amateur every time. All of Miller’s practical effects bravado from Mad Max: Fury Road is totally, glaringly absent here. In a film impressively managing to keep its artifice at bay through convincing mise-en-scene, the computer effects frequently threaten to crash the illusion. Do we really need CGI cobwebs?!
Overall, “Three Thousand Years” is enjoyable in the theater, but its charm quickly dissipates after the projector flickers off. The story is glaringly disjointed on a micro and macro scale. Because the film never establishes a tone or context, the viewer is forced to create one, orienting themselves as the plot flies by – focus is nonexistent. Therefore it was “Worth a Watch”.
For more information visit here-> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9198364/
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Did you know?
Cinematographer John Seale came out of retirement for the second time to shoot this movie. He’d previously done so in 2012 to shoot Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), also directed by George Miller.
The name “Alithea” is ancient Greek for “truthful”.
Originally, Nick Enright was set to co-write the script with George Miller, but he died from cancer in 2003 before he was to begin writing. Before his death, Enright suggested Augusta Gore, Miller’s daughter and Enright’s godchild, to take over writing.
Alithea comes from “Aletheia”. Aletheia is the Ancient Greek goddess of truth, who is also known in Roman mythology as Veritas.
On one of her rides, Alithea Binnie (Tilda Swinton) is reading “The Prophet” which is a book by Gibran Khalil Gibran, the famous Lebanese-American writer, poet and visual artist, what’s interesting is that the book was first released about 100 years ago (1923).
Filming was originally supposed to take place in Australia, London and Istanbul in March 2020, but the COVID-19 Pandemic at that time caused the London and Istanbul filming to be cancelled, so the entire movie was shot in Australia doubling for those locations.
The movie’s narrative is about stories and storytelling. From the opening shot, the film makes several references to the fictional Shahrazad Airlines. The filmmakers even thank the airlines in the end credits. These “subtle ” references are meant to call to mind the fabled Scheherazade from the book 1001 Arabian Nights, in which Scheherazade tells the king a fanciful tale ending in a cliffhanger each night to intrigue the king and prevent her from being executed the following morning. The filmmakers’ spelling of Shahrazad also suggests a connection with a particular card in the popular role-playing card game Magic: The Gathering. The card proved unpopular and has since been banned from the game.
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