My Review: Melancholia

This movie starts out letting you know that the world is going to end. We see a bunch of slow motion shots of certain characters moments before it happens, and then we see this giant blue planet crash right into Earth. Kind of a downer, but it looked absolutely amazing. Then we get to Part One: Justine, which is all about Kirsten Dunst's character on her wedding day. It starts out totally normal, with her and her new husband (played by the very handsome Alexander Skarsgard) having some trouble getting their stretch limo through the wavy driveway. They seem like a very happy couple, and when we get to the wedding we are introduced to her sister, her brother in law, her mother (who is opposed to marriages) and her father (who appears to be drunk the whole time.) We soon start to see that Justine is less than happy on her wedding day, and start getting hints of her mental problems. I don't understand how someone could be unhappy after marrying that tall drink of water Alexander Skarsgard, but whatever...Anyways, Part Two: Claire is about Justine's sister (played by Charlotte Gainsbourg) who is stressing out about this planet called Melancholia, which she believes is going to hit Earth, even though her husband (Keifer Sutherland) assures her that it won't. After seeing the second half I really didn't see the point of the first half. The first half doesn't mention the planet at all, and the second half doesn't feature most of the characters from the first half. After the first half is over we don't see Justine's new husband, or Justine and Claire's parents ever again. I suppose part one was just there to let us know that Justine is a little off center. Anyways, Melancholia goes right past Earth as Claire's husband says, but then a few days later, it starts moving closer to the Earth. I thought that the last shot of the planet coming close to Earth while Justine, Claire, and Claire's son were sitting under their "magic cave" they made looked really cool. I do think that the second half really dragged a bit though. Of course, that could just be because the popcorn I had at the theater made me a little sick and I just wanted the movie to hurry up and get over with. This movie isn't all that entertaining and I wasn't very interested in the characters of Justine and Claire, but it does have some great visuals. The only characters that I were interested in (Skarsgard, John Hurt, and Charlotte Rampling's characters) were only in the beginning... My rating: 5/10