The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part
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Critics Consensus: Writer-director Mike Cahill remains an intriguingly ambitious talent, but with the uneven sci-fi drama I Origins, his reach exceeds his grasp.
Critic Consensus: Writer-director Mike Cahill remains an intriguingly ambitious talent, but with the uneven sci-fi drama I Origins, his reach exceeds his grasp.
All Critics (102) | Top Critics (35) | Fresh (53) | Rotten (49)
One laugh, courtesy of Pitt's intellect-signifying dicky bow; the rest is arrant, po-faced nonsense.
Cahill spends the entire film bringing a sense of wonder to the desperately rational Ian, and if the film takes on a glow toward the end, that glow feels well-earned.
Humanistic sci-fi from director Mike Cahill, insofar as it sympathizes with the human longings for both understanding and transcendent mystery.
I Origins challenges too little and ties up things too neatly for it to register as anything more than well-made, well-intentioned hogwash.
Big ideas can sometimes lead to great motion pictures or, as in the case of I Origins, colossal misfires.
With a slew of seemingly random clues unraveling in the pursuit of scientific mystery, Origins becomes gut-punching marvel.
It plays out like Dharma and Greg-the rebellious and spiritual woman who woos the straight laced logical man-and this lack of originality is boring.
There are far too many times when the story simply looses its footing and falls into another tedious direction, leaving some angles completely dangling.
The longer the film goes on, the clunkier, sillier, and more preposterous it becomes. Expect your eyes to roll.
I Origins tries desperately to imbue a deeper metaphysical meaning with its narrative, but the alignment of all its concepts come off as disjointed and pretentious.
As of yet, we have no science on reincarnation, but the science fiction is definitely getting warmer.
Sceptical scientist Michael Pitt falls in love with spacey new age model Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, attracted by her dazzling dichromatic eyes [and] the tussle between rationalism and mysticism takes turns that are both unexpected and thought provoking.
What a wonderful surprise to see Mike Cahill confront science and spirituality with so much competence in this extremely challenging, thought-provoking blend of romance, drama and science fiction sustained by an always gripping mystery and clever dialogue.
Super Reviewer
Very interesting. It's probably true that I would watch Michael Pitt in anything, but this was a really well done movie. It certainly didn't make me believe in afterlife and reincarnation, and I don't think it aims to either, despite people calling it religious propaganda. Everything in it is inconclusive and left to your own interpretation. The ending is a freaky coincidence, and I had no problem with it. As a movie, it worked very well.cast are all outstanding.
Almost too ambitious for it's own good, "I Origins" pulls off the impossible in creating this belief that human eyes can be produced through Science and that they have a way of regenerating and used by life and death as they are passed on. Most of the film will be scientific mumbo jumbo to viewers who do not have an open mind for stories such as this, but I opened my mind as much as I possibly could, resulting in a perfectly flawed film. I do not believe this has ever happened to me before. I fell in love with this film right from the start, and by the end I was in tears, but most of the events in between, you kind of just have to go with. Each scene in this film sets up the next scene and the scene after that, and so on, but you really have to be intrigued in order to fully appreciate the story at hand. "I Origins" is one of the most flawed films of 2014, because the sole beliefs about the human eyes is what keeps the film moving along, and if you do not buy into it you will have a pretty depressing viewing experience. Although it is extremely flawed by it's premise, it kind of finds the right groove and creates something beautiful. After reading this you may not expect me to say this, but "I Origins" is one of the best films of 2014. Thought-provoking, enlightening, and mysteriously engaging, I loved this film.
Ian: What would you do if something spiritual disproved your scientific beliefs? A few years back, writer/director Mike Cahill made a film called Another Earth, which managed to find itself on my top ten list. It was a debut feature and had some rough edges, but it hit me in just the right way and at just the right time (going well with its existential-sci-fi-drama counterpart - Melancholia), providing me with enough to let the film get to me more than I was expecting. Now we have Cahill's follow up feature, I Origins, which I cannot say I was as enraptured by, but still found to be interesting. The main curiosity I have outside of this film is whether or not audiences will be happy to go along with what is essentially a character journey that does not really decide to engage in a specific plot until more than halfway through the film. There is a sense looseness here that I think can go either way for people, but I did find myself involved in some key moments that led me to admiring I Origins quite a bit. read the whole review at thecodeiszeek.com
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