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In 2003, noted author (and personal hero) Harlan Ellison chided me for saying that the reprinting of some of his short stories was "awesome." "The Grand Canyon is 'awesome,'" he shouted theatrically. "The Heavenly Cosmos are 'awesome!' This? Maybe interesting. But definitely not 'awesome!'"

I thought about that definition of "awesome" as I watched the 45-minute cut of writer/director Terrence Malick's cosmic nature documentary "Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience." Malick's film, a combination of gorgeous documentary footage and vividly detailed computer-generated imagery, is majestic but so broad in its scope that I left it feeling like I'd seen something beautiful whose spark of genius only lasted as long as it was in front of my eyes. Malick's idiosyncratic marriage of spiritual speculation and nature photography is frequently amazing. But altogether awesome? Not quite.

Narrated throughout by Brad Pitt , "Voyage of Time" starts at the beginning of time and ends with the demise of the world as we know it. We see swirling nebulae, smoky volcanoes and multiplying bacteria while Pitt tells us about the "restless" character of life. 

Malick has an elemental view of life's origins, so Pitt offers general poetic speculations instead of specific information about what we're looking at. He suggests, in his placating authorial whisper, that "Nature" is constantly perfecting life on Earth. "Death" pushes Life along towards "Perfection." "Community" leads to the individual "Self," and we witness a vast array of crabs piling onto and climbing over each other. Life teems with mysterious "Goodness" as translucent white jellyfish float gently towards the water's surface.

There's something fundamentally sanitized about this dreamy, placid view of life. Ellison once said that life was a series of confrontations. But Love unites Malick's world, as we see when two blue whales hover near each other. And we are just like the dinosaurs, since we also have the capacity to feel affection for each other and, yes, to feel awe. 

But there is no violence in Malick's world, just a cycle of becoming that comes to an end for one large fish after he's bitten by a sea lion. Herons dive deep into the ocean and pick at a school of fish, who rally in unison to escape. Life thrives, just as Malick insists that "dark" is necessarily "bound" to "light." We see humanity in a flurry of images at the end of this cut of "Voyage of Time," because our story is the same as the story of growing trees, cooling Earth, and the catastrophic meteor that salted the Earth with plant-killing ash. Or at least, that's what an introductory scrolling text suggests when it tells us that we are seeing ourselves when we examine the objects and animals in the film.

I struggle with Malick's expressive, supra-human vision of life because its philosophy is bound up in its simultaneously pat and viscerally enchanting expression. I knew something was off when footage of computer-generated dinosaurs left me cold. Similar dino footage used in Malick's majestic " The Tree of Life ," a superior companion film that shares footage and a general outlook with "Voyage of Time," felt genuinely mysterious because of contextualizing footage. The narration is similarly nuanced in that earlier film while it is purposefully simplified in "Voyage of Time." These two films provide fundamentally different viewing experiences: "The Tree of Life" pulls you along with the speed and variety of life as it's experienced from a God's eye view while "Voyage of Time" summarizes that perspective, putting it in terms that a "child" could understand. We are all "children of the Good," we are told, because we are just another part of Nature's constant yearning for Perfection. 

Still, it is exciting to see such a personal theological vision writ large on an IMAX screen. Who else but Malick could make me puzzle over the meaning of a description of a "pre-mammalian" quadruped lizard creature? What other documentarian would revel in the unfathomable passage of time while also presuming to speak of a Natural plan? What other storyteller would have the audacity to make a cinematic poem that's largely comprised of documentary footage, and bookended by simulated versions of the Big Bang and Earth's destruction? What's my problem anyway?

I don't know how to answer that last question, but I can tell you something Ellison wrote, this time in a 1980 issue of  Future Life . In a column later anthologized in his  An Edge in My Voice  essay collection, Ellison rhapsodizes eloquently about the Voyager I mission. He was awed, then crestfallen at the thought of the news cycle concentrating on the war between Iran and Iraq, and not NASA's latest photographs and speculations about the spokes on Saturn's rings. "Ain't we a wonderful species," he muses sarcastically after reveling for thousands of words in the thrill of discovery, and the shock of the new provided by NASA's scientists. I didn't need "Voyage of Time" to confirm my spiritual point-of-view to be great: I just wish it were a little less flat. As it is, Malick's film feels incomplete, like a sampler platter version of a hearty meal. Awesome? Maybe not. But intriguing? Oh my yes.

Simon Abrams

Simon Abrams is a native New Yorker and freelance film critic whose work has been featured in  The New York Times ,  Vanity Fair ,  The Village Voice,  and elsewhere.

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‘voyage of time: the imax experience’: film review | tiff 2016.

Terrence Malick’s history of the universe flies by in under an hour on the giant Imax screen.

By THR Staff

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Premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival a week after the 35mm feature film Voyage of Time: Life’s Journey bowed in Venice, the 45-minute Voyage of Time, The Imax Experience is not surprisingly the more visceral physical experience. It also is far less magical and mystical than the longer version, where Cate Blanchett questions the Mother about her purpose in the universe. Here, co-producer Brad Pitt ’s matter-of-fact narration is stripped of spiritual connotations and seems aimed to dazzle a younger audience of children and students. As the history of the universe speeds by in spectacular full-screen images, the eerie, intimate, urgent need to know why, which was so unique in Life’s Journey , dissolves into a pure documentary and writer-director Terrence Malick ’s voice is muted beneath all those superb visual effects.

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Though the wonder of galaxies, nature and the planet Earth is magnified to room-size, the feeling of awe is undercut by a perhaps inevitably rushed quality. Let’s say that 45 minutes isn’t a whole lot of time to cover several billion years of natural history. Nearly all the shots used by editors Keith Fraase and Rehman Ali in the Imax film are present in the feature, which was long enough to give them time to construct a symphonic build-up to emotional peaks. Here, there is less music, more facts. On the other hand, the shorter format seems to follow the same structure of a chronological timeline, and no major sequence has been cut out.

Release date: Oct 07, 2016

After all the comparisons have been made, this is a magnificent documentary that is going to set the benchmark for history-of-the-universe films in the years to come. More than a decade in the making, it avails itself of top scientific consultants lead by NASA advisor Andrew Knoll and sticks as close as possible to current thinking on how the universe came into being, how the Earth was formed and how life began and evolved over the course of billions of years. The imagination is fired by an orgy of glorious, astounding images, some taken from Hubble Space Telescope, NASA space probes and the Solar Dynamic Observatory, some created in the studio out of spilled paint and gelatin. Where photographs are missing, Malick’s team guided by his regular production designer Jack Fisk and visual effects supervisor Dan Glass credibly invent them.

The  Voyage of Time project is closest in spirit to the director’s 2011 Palme d’Or winner The Tree of Life  starring Brad Pitt, whose evolutionary theme and images of light and space recall Stanley Kubrick’s sweeping vision of humankind in 2001: A Space Odyssey . Malick’s urge to make a film about the birth of the universe was first conceived in the late 1970s as a project known simply as Q backed by Paramount. One can only imagine how the advances in technology over the last 40 years influenced the finished film.

The story begins in a dark void, where patterns of light like nerve synapses indicate a primordial energy ready to burst forth in a symphony of exploding stars and galaxies. A black ball rolls through space: the Earth. On it, volcanoes spew their fiery guts into the sky in dense gray clouds, and by the time the steamy lava cools to form the shoals of an ocean, the planet has been created. Then bacteria, the first forms of life, appear.

There are proto-mammals. There are monstrous sea creatures and dancing jellyfish. There are dinosaurs. Showing this film is aimed at children, the opening and closing shots are of a little girl thoughtfully walking through a field as the camera swoops around her. There’s a little more upfront information than in the feature film. For example, Brad Pitt explains the consequences of the asteroid that crashes into the planet, which covered the Earth in a layer of dust, killing all plant life and causing the dinosaurs to starve.

If the feature film reached for, and often failed to achieve, great emotions to match its imagery, the non-contemplative Imax Experience seems even farther from this goal. Vastness and infinity are all fine and good, but the beauty of the universe tends to feel monstrous and inhuman without an element of human chaos to counterbalance it. When Paleolithic man finally gets his close-up, the audience feels a thrilling moment of self-recognition. This is followed by a breathtaking dance of lights as the camera flies over nighttime Dubai and the 2,700-foot Burj Al-Khalifa, the tallest structure in the world and one of humankind’s most impressive architectural achievements. How quickly time flies.

Production companies: Imax Experience, Broad Green Pictures, Sophisticated Films Narrator: Brad Pitt Director-screenwriter: Terrence Malick Producers: Dede Gardner, Nicolas Gonda, Sarah Green, Grant Hill, Brad Pitt, Bill Pohlad, Sophokles Tasioulis Director of photography: Paul Atkins Production designer: Jack Fisk Visual effects supervisor: Dan Glass Editors: Rehman Ali, Keith Fraase World sales: Wild Bunch

Not rated, 45 minutes

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Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience Reviews

An immersive, emotional and sensorial experience. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Dec 21, 2021

[Malick's] style is still urgent and distinctive and his question is perfectly valid: "Why is there something rather than nothing?"

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 14, 2021

A short but sprawling cantata that functions as a sort of Cliff's Notes capstone to Malick's 45-year filmmaking career.

Full Review | Aug 19, 2019

Whether you are a committed tree-hugger or techno-titan at large, one thing is definitely clear--Malick's adventurous 'Voyage' is worth exploring with a conscientious compass at the environmental hip.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 9, 2018

[Director Terrence] Malick claims to have worked on the concept for this film across 40 years yet it somehow has a slapped-together feel. IMAX may well be part of the future of cinema but hopefully films like this will quickly become a thing of the past.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Sep 15, 2017

A mesmerizing exploration of the magical place we all call home.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 31, 2016

Awesome? Maybe not. But intriguing? Oh my yes.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 7, 2016

Malick the animist moves into abstraction, like Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey F/X, but he ends with amazement, like Godard's late spiritual films. And this isn't just IMAX novelty...Malick brings cinema back to its phenomenological beginning.

Full Review | Nov 4, 2016

Children of a certain maturity level could find their minds blown by such deep thoughts. And if the younger ones are a bit bored - well, it's still just 44 minutes.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 27, 2016

If you can free yourself to ride the millennia with Malick, it's a strange voyage, but one ultimately worth taking.

Full Review | Oct 27, 2016

Voyage of Time, in both versions, is the first time a Malick film is caged within itself, the soul never quite reaching the liberated transcendence that all of his characters are so desperately looking for.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Oct 21, 2016

A lyrical account of Earth's evolution ...

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 21, 2016

A sprawling, meditative, and visually beautiful magical history tour filled with inspiring sights and profound observations.

Full Review | Oct 10, 2016

VOYAGE OF TIME: THE IMAX EXPERIENCE is a gorgeous documentary that is a must see on the biggest screen possible...

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Oct 7, 2016

Voyage of Time is a beautiful diversion, but almost entirely empty, even in its inquisitive big swings for profundity.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Oct 7, 2016

Voyage of Time constitutes something more audacious than a call to action. First and foremost, it sets out to model an ethic of wonder.

Full Review | Oct 7, 2016

Before your eyes is a kind of miracle, a fusion of digital imagery and photographic imagination that seems at once utterly natural and completely impossible.

Full Review | Oct 6, 2016

What would an educational movie about the history of the universe made by Terrence Malick look like? Now we know.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 6, 2016

Rarely has an argument for the interconnectedness of all things been so fleet of foot and ambitious all at once.

Full of overwhelming beauty, and ready to set the curious viewer's mind aflame.

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Why Terrence Malick’s ‘Voyage of Time’ Must Be Seen On IMAX — Toronto Analysis

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As Terrence Malick drifts further into his own world, his films have become easy targets. All that gentle, pensive narration and roaming camerawork less interested in actors than gorgeous scenery has been frequently pigeonholed as a parody of the more lyrical storytelling that put the filmmaker on the map decades ago. Malick received something of a rebirth after 20 dormant years with the acclaim for “The Thin Red Line,” “The New World” and “Tree of Life,” a trio of ambitious narratives that reached for ethereal heights. By those standards, the fairly subdued portraits of lonely characters in the relationship drama “To the Wonder” and Hollywood-set “Knight of Cups” felt like half-formed efforts in search of a bigger picture.

Malick finally has widened the lens with “ Voyage of Time : Life’s Journey,” an expansive look at the history of all living things, and the operatic expression of spirituality that dominates this visually remarkable effort shows just how little Malick cares to level with his audience. You either embrace his vision or reject it altogether — and so far, many of the people who saw the 90-minute cut of “Voyage of Time” at the Venice and Toronto film festivals have done just that . But it’s not the whole story.

“Voyage of Time” actually comes in two versions: the feature-length version, equipped with a whimsical narration by Cate Blanchett that questions god in vague maternal terms, does not currently have a release date. However, a 45-minute cut, narrated by Brad Pitt in much more straightforward terms, will be released on IMAX screens on October 7. Excising some of the more peculiar digressions and overweening poetic asides, “Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience” foregrounds the incredible collage of awe-inspiring effects that recreate the birth of the universe, life on Earth, and eventually humankind. It also has a very clear sense of purpose.

“Dear child,” reads an opening scrawl. “Today you’re going to watch a movie that shows the story of the universe. From the birth of stars, to modern cities glowing in the night.” And so “Voyage of Time” proceeds to reveal just that, with a pileup of extraordinary images ranging from glimmering nebulae to sprawling mountain ranges and ancient creatures large and small; sewn together with dramatic classical music cues of Mahler and Beethoven along with Pitt’s occasional context, “Voyage of Time” delivers one of the most spectacular nature documentaries in recent memory. “Planet Earth” devotees should be smitten.

Malick doesn’t delve into every scientific detail of the processes captured in the movie, but “Voyage of Time” excels at capturing their magnificence. While the credits list his wife Alexandra as the “ambassador of good will,” the movie’s real saving grace is the IMAX screen. Effects wizard Dan Glass builds on some of the images glimpsed in “Tree of Life” to provide an immersive overview of expanding gases in the wake of the big bang, the eons of rain that cooled the crust, the death of the dinosaurs in the wake of an asteroid collision and the evolution of human consciousness.

In IMAX, the swirling cosmos, flowing water and explosive clouds take on a greater sensational quality than any spectacle found in your average blockbuster, in part because Pitt’s raspy voiceover gives them a precise meaning. “Why was there something and not nothing?” he wonders as the film begins. In another Malick movie, such pontifications might induce eye rolls, but here the question has a literal answer in the ensuing processes the film reveals.

“Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience” has such precise intentions, in fact, that the lesser 90-minute cut amounts to something of a distraction. While both versions include many of the same astounding visuals, the longer movie includes frequent cutaways to contemporary digital video footage that draws blunt parallels between modern times and early days of life. The IMAX version sets those tangents aside in favor of a more palatable emphasis on natural wonders. Malick regularly cuts away to a young girl in a field, obviously thinking about her surroundings, and one can easily imagine the movie designed for someone like her. The movie unfolds like a letter to someone discovering the mysteries of the universe for the first time and reveling in their beauty.

As Pitt extols the influence of “every atom, every particle blazing,” the ginormous IMAX screen makes it possible to peer into primordial oceans, catastrophic storms, jagged rock formations and neon skyscrapers as if they’re really there in front of you. (Sitting alone in a private IMAX screening, I surprised myself by saying “wow” out loud more than once.) It takes a filmmaker willing to work with reckless abandon to produce a movie designed for a specific theatrical experience. James Cameron did it with “Avatar,” and now comes “Voyage of Time,” which audiences must experience on IMAX to appreciate its virtues.

“The majority of the world, we can’t even see,” Pitt says, and “Voyage of Time” reads like a plea to look closer. Its concise running time makes that lesson go down a lot easier than any attempt to cloud the picture with more convoluted ideas. In other words, it benefits from comparison to the other version, which often buries its splendor in meandering observations. That itself is nothing new. Recent Malick films often express a jumble of transcendent concepts. At 45 minutes, “Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience” crystalizes them. It’s the closest we may ever get to his manifesto.

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Voyage of Time: Life's Journey

An exploration into our planetary past and a search for humanity's place in the future. With narration by Cate Blanchett. An exploration into our planetary past and a search for humanity's place in the future. With narration by Cate Blanchett. An exploration into our planetary past and a search for humanity's place in the future. With narration by Cate Blanchett.

• Terrence Malick
• Cate Blanchett
• Jamal Cavil
• Maisha Diatta
• 33 User reviews
• 52 Critic reviews
• 68 Metascore
• 2 wins & 5 nominations

• Early Human

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• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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• Trivia Terrence Malick has been designing and working on the film with large-format cameras for over thirty years.

[repeated line]

Narrator : Mother.

• Alternate versions A 46-minute version of the film, Voyage of Time (2016) , with narration by Brad Pitt , was produced in a 3.6:1 aspect ratio for IMAX projection.
• Connections Referenced in WatchMojo: Top 10 Great Movies You Missed This Fall (2016)
• Soundtracks Symphony No. 9 in D Minor ('Choral') Composed Ludwig van Beethoven Performed by Nicolaus Esterházy Sinfonia and Chorus Conducted by Bela Drahos Courtesy of Naxos By arrangement with Source/Q

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• Runtime 1 hour 30 minutes
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Voyage of time: the imax experience.

2016 Directed by Terrence Malick

The story of our universe.

A celebration of the universe, displaying the whole of time, from its start to its final collapse. This film examines all that occurred to prepare the world that stands before us now: science and spirit, birth and death, the grand cosmos and the minute life systems of our planet.

Brad Pitt Jamal Cavil Maisha Diatta Yagazie Emezi Daryl James Harris II Sebastian Jackson Abraham Kosgei Runa Lucienne Theo Bongani Ndyalvane Jejuan Plair Gabi Rojas Shaun Ross Mechelle Tunstall Sanetra Stewart Blane E. Warrior II

Director Director

Terrence Malick

Producers Producers

Brad Pitt Grant Hill Sarah Green Dede Gardner Bill Pohlad Sophokles Tasioulis Nicolas Gonda Hans Graffunder Jini Durr Elizabeth Lodge Stepp Dan Glass Morgan Pollitt Tyler Savage

Executive Producers Exec. Producers

Jacques Perrin Yves Chevalier Christos V. Konstantakopoulos Tanner Beard Donald Rosenfeld Asher Goldstein Gabriel Hammond Mary Bing Victor Moyers Daniel Hammond Ryan Rettig

Writer Writer

Casting casting.

Sarah Dowling

Editors Editors

Keith Fraase Rehman Nizar Ali

Cinematography Cinematography

Paul Atkins Tom Debenham Mark Miks

Camera Operators Camera Operators

Mark Gerasimenko Julio Quintana

Additional Photography Add. Photography

Tom Löwe Victor Bruno Chris Mierzwinski Mike Goveia Eric Hines Dustin Kukuk Josh Owens Nilo Merino Recalde

Production Design Production Design

Art direction art direction.

Ruth De Jong

Special Effects Special Effects

Visual effects visual effects.

Joseph Batten Lisa Goldberg Brett Dowler Tom Debenham V.W. Scheich Bruce Woloshyn Ann Podlozny Erik De Boer Dan Glass Owen Hammer Leila Nicotera Chaya Feiner Daniel Rauchwerger Chris Parks Brian Delmonico Olivier Dumont Brett Harding Matt Pulliam

Choreography Choreography

Jennifer Hamilton

Sound Sound

Goro Koyama Andy Malcolm Don White Hamilton Sterling Joel Dougherty P.K. Hooker Jared Marshack Justin M. Davey Dwight Chalmers Jack Heeren Stephen Muir Christopher Cody Flick

Costume Design Costume Design

Tom Macdonald

Makeup Makeup

Matthew W. Mungle John E. Jackson

Broad Green Pictures IMAX Sophisticated Films

Releases by Date

10 sep 2016, 07 oct 2016, 17 dec 2021, releases by country.

• Premiere Toronto International Film Festival
• Digital MUBI
• Theatrical G IMAX

45 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by reibureibu 5

Malick's style of finding the sublime in the everyday is a wonderful double-edged sword. The images he captures are truly extraordinary and are suffused with a spirituality that's so rarely found, and at the same time I find it can be quite exhausting as well: for how gorgeous that shot of wheat field is, there's only so many shots of wheat fields I can see before I start getting a little restless.

Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience (what a name) may not necessarily be Malick at his peak, but it's a work that surprisingly curbs all the subjective weaknesses I have with him. The shortness of its length admittedly leaves a lot to be desired (something that wasn't an…

Review by Héctor ★★★★

This movie is a landmark vision...it's pure poetry, hypnotic in its beauty. I read that every scene was created in consultation with scientists expert in those fields and it shows.

Review by Brendan Michaels ★★★★ 9

That was me for the entirety of Terrence Malick's Voyage of Time: An IMAX Experience. I hope the Life's Journey cut comes out soon because I'm only hungry for more after seeing this. Imagine the creation sequence from The Tree of Life but into a 40 minute documentary. Brad Pitt's narration is so soothing it has the fatherly touch most Malick's films have. Visually stunning in every regard, Malick brings beauty to every moment and wastes no time in sharing the world with us. Magnificent in execution Voyage of Time  left me wanting more which I hope Life's Journey fills in December. I am blown away as I usually am with Malick's work and I hope you all get a chance to see this beauty on the big screen. All I am left with is that Voyage of Time is magnificent.

Review by Hutch ★★½ 4

This is Terrence Malick in full wonder mode, and while I can’t vouch for its effectiveness or otherwise on the IMAX scale, I certainly struggled with it on my merely human scale. It starts with abstract space spunk before leading into heavily CGI’d approximations of reality, mixed in with shots of real reality at its most infernally spectacular and preternaturally beautiful. The beauty of nature in Malick’s lens is overwhelming. Even the primitive humans have got perfect teeth*. Rising above its immaculate conception hovers a whispering Brad Pitt uttering banalities. This is surely the ultimate in dreadful voiceovers, operating to the logic of a random awestruck word generator. There is some great music in here by the likes of Mahler, Beethoven, Bach, Pärt, Poulenc and Kancheli, but it’s all somehow made to sound less great. 

Terrence Malick Ranked

* Milo has kindly pointed out that bad teeth are more of a modern phenomenon.

Review by Sudhakar Kumar ★★★★★ 3

An immersive one-of-a-kind celebration.

This IMAX version of the picture, a 45-minute examination of the known universe, is a sprawling, meditative, and visually beautiful magical history tour filled with inspiring sights and profound observations. Malick has created something both distinctly his own and wholly singular.

Voyage of Time is pure visual poetry. But it’s also beautifully written and narrated. Brad Pitt brings a sense of gravitas to Malick’s words, which observe the universe with childlike wonder. It tells the story of our world from the Big Bang all the way through to the present day and beyond. Pitt’s raspy voiceover gives them a precise meaning.

The movie unfolds like a letter to someone discovering the mysteries of the universe for…

Review by Viktor 5

Such a beautiful breathtaking experience

Review by Jordan Raup ★★★★ 1

I haven't seen Life's Journey yet, but there's a lot to admire in this shorter, 45-minute IMAX version. Aside from being stunned by every shot, I found Malick's framing device to be affecting. The introductory text is omniscient and Brad Pitt's narration is inquisitive, then Malick's recurring cuts to a child place the entire journey as if we're seeing it through their eyes. It's a humbling perspective to behold as we elegantly glide through, well, everything , strengthened by the staggering clarity in each frame. Malick's entire career has been showing the beauty all around us, but Voyage of Time is his most direct plea that we don't take it for granted. While I look forward to seeing the 90-minute version, this one, at the very least, should be required viewing for kids. If you're not one, it strikes the difficult balance of making one feel infinitesimal and integral at the same time.

Review by ndc32002 ★★★★½

watch if you want brad pitt to talk to you like he's your daddy

Review by Paul Thomas ★★★½

Malick's eye and the elements of cinematic composition he brings makes this a step above other imax experiences.

A beautiful historical view of the univeral shows time from the beginning into the far future. It's like science's answer to Mother!

Review by Robert Franco

1. Regardless of whether they were aware of it or not, it warmed my heart to see parents taking their kids to the Science Center to see a Terrence Malick film. 2. Malick should start writing children's books. 3. See this in IMAX or don't see it at all. 4. Malick knows.

Review by Tyler Ward ★★★★★

After five years of being basically inaccessible to American audiences outside of a few select IMAX screenings across the country, MUBI has finally made Terrence Malick's Voyage of Time widely available for the first time. It's worth noting, for those who don't know, that there are actually two versions of this film: a feature-length version featuring narration by Cate Blanchett, and a shorter, 45-minute version designed to be shown in IMAX theaters in science centers and other institutions, narrated by Brad Pitt. It's the latter version of this documentary that is currently streaming on MUBI.

But really, the term "documentary" is a bit of a misnomer here. While Voyage of Time certainly isn't a narrative film, it's also far removed…

Review by Mathias Larsen ★★★

Space is wonderful isn’t it.. so weird how all that stuff is around us at distances beyond our comprehension :) pretty crazy how it all came to be too. More importantly I’m definitely watching every Terrence Malick  in existence 

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Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience (2016)

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Currently you are able to watch "Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience" streaming on MUBI.

A celebration of the universe, displaying the whole of time, from its start to its final collapse. This film examines all that occurred to prepare the world that stands before us now: science and spirit, birth and death, the grand cosmos and the minute life systems of our planet.

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James Cameron Confirms He’s Planning to ‘Go Ahead With’ a ‘Fantastic Voyage’ Remake ‘Very Soon’

By Ben Croll

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Gallic cinephiles gave James Cameron a hero’s welcome at a Paris masterclass on Thursday, ushering the action auteur onstage with a reception so thunderous that it shook the filmmaker’s oft-unflappable public demeanor.

“That’s the record,” he said in between laughs and in a show of uncommon giddiness. “That’s the record for the longest applause I’ve ever had in my life. Thank you. This is a high point of my career!”

“I wasn’t involved in the layout or the design or any of that,” Cameron told the audience as the applause finally dimmed. “So when I [first] walked through I thought, ‘Wow, this is my whole journey. It all makes sense to me, now for the very first time.’”

Dreams and Nightmares

While Sigourney Weaver flanked her longtime collaborator at the exhibition’s opening vernissage, “Proxima” director Alice Winocour stepped in to lead the talk. Still, the star actress remained a prime subject of conversation – leading to an endearing connection between the two filmmakers.

After Winocour said that she wrote many of her scripts sitting below a framed photo of Weaver as Ellen Ripley, Cameron revealed he had done the very same, writing “Aliens” for an actress he had yet to meet while taking inspiration from her photo.

And though the sequel’s visual universe built on the designs of H.R. Giger, the incoming director made sure to leave his own mark on the material by introducing the Alien Queen. “I think Giger was a little disappointed that we didn’t hire him,” said Cameron, listing off the various biomechanoid features that made the new villain such chilling addition. “But I had so many ideas about what I could do in that same area.”

“[I remembered a dream] where I went into a dark room with every square inch of the walls and ceiling covered in wasps, and I knew that if I moved or tried to escape, they would attack me dead,” he recalled. “Every horror film must go to the deepest and worst place in the subconscious [because] that’s the point. That’s what you to pay your money for.”

‘Avatar’ and Beyond

Given the event’s reflective and retrospective context, Cameron offered little new information about his three upcoming “Avatar” sequels. However, he reassured the audience that work on Part 3 is coming along for an intended late 2025 release and that the scripts for the subsequent volleys are finished, the designs nearly locked and 3D modeling just about to begin.

As for other pursuits, the filmmaker once again brought up his plans to produce a remake of the 1966 tour-through-the-human-body “ Fantastic Voyage ,” a project Cameron and his partner Jon Landau have toyed with for over a decade.

“We’ve been developing it for a number of years, and we plan to go ahead with it very soon,” Cameron said. “Raquel Welch is not available, but we think we can make a pretty good movie.”

Hope and Dread

Without giving any more specifics, Cameron perhaps offered a thematic clue when describing his appreciation for science fiction as a conduit for both hope and dread.

“Science fiction allows us to imagine futures that can emerge from our present day,” he said. “When ‘Star Wars’ came along, science fiction seemed to suddenly become very upbeat, [all about] entertainment and adventure. But the history has always been about warning, about the misuse of technology and the misuse of science.”

“Who gets to decide what’s good for humanity?” he asked. “Machine intelligence will only be a reflection of us. It’ll be us with all our flaws and all of our potentially evil intentions. Yes, that can be good, but the atomic scientists of the 1930s believed [they would unlock] an infinite power source that would abolish starvation… Instead we got Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Cold War. This is what concerns me.”

Taste for Risk

Reflecting on a career path that began with schlock before building toward some of the highest grossing – and most expensive – films of all time, Cameron saw a clear throughline in his taste for risk.

“The more established you become, the more you risk losing what you’ve already gained,” he said. “But I also think that the greatest risk you can make is not trying something new and different. There’s a tendency, when the budget gets bigger, to start to go for the lowest common denominator – and you cannot do that.”

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