There Will Be Blood is a thinking man’s movie. It can be described as powerful, poetic, and dramatic. It has won a bunch of awards across the world. Movie goers have rewarded the movie with a 8.5 rating on IMDb and a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Then why did I find it so lackluster?

The movie started off slow. The first ten minutes or so of the movie had no dialogue. I found that boring and confusing. The only thing I got out of the beginning was that this movie is about oil. If they wanted to show the viewer oil, there are plenty of other ways of doing it that does not take up ten minutes.

The movie follows the turbulent life of Daniel Plainview, from his rise to wealth and his downfall from greed.  Daniel Plainview is an oil entrepreneur who goes where the oil is and drills for it.  The main character is played by Daniel Day Lewis, who puts in a perfect performance of an evil, greedy oil man.

The movie is also very long, at around 158 minutes. That is 2.5 hours of following the oil man as he wheels and deals for more oil. There is one scene in the movie that I did enjoy. It involved Daniel Plainview slapping and beating on Eli Sunday, a young pastor for the local church.

Score: B-