How long does it take to explore the entire history of the whole friggin' universe? In the hands of Terrence Malick? A few decades plus about 90-minutes or so. His ambitious years-in-the-making documentary Voyage of Time is nearing its big debut at the Venice International Film Festival and theatrical release this fall, and another breath-taking trailer for it has arrived.
Malick has prepared two cuts of the film but this trailer is for the extended 90-minute edition narrated by Cate Blanchett. A 40-minute IMAX cut features the voice of Brad Pitt. This isn't too much different from what we saw in the prior trailer but so what? It doesn't take away from the beauty of the footage he's assembled to help explain the connection between human evolution and the universe we live in. I always felt like his inclusion of this stuff in The Tree of Life was wildly out of place but this looks like the proper venue for it.
The shorter cut of Voyage of Time will hit theaters on October 7th. Check out the synopsis and the trailer below.
The unfolding of the universe takes place before your eyes, in this experience for the senses, mind and soul.
A labor of passion by director Terrence Malick (Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line, The Tree of Life), Voyage of Time: Life’s Journey is an exploration into our planetary past and a search for humanity’s place in the future. Humming with the energy of nature itself, the film melds innovative special effects with awe-inspiring footage from around the globe, in search of what lasts, what endures through time’s changing scenes.
What does it mean, after all those eons, to be us, here, now?
The action traces the scientific chronology of earth, from the birth of the stars to the explosion of new life, to the planet-altering debut of humankind. Malick invites audiences to probe past, present and future in intimate ways. Working with a team of scientific advisors and visual effects artists led by Dan Glass (The Tree of Life, Batman Begins, The Matrix Reloaded) the film shows an array of never-witnessed natural phenomena – celestial and terrestrial, macroscopic and microscopic – in a variety of new ways.
The fierce geology of the early planet. The first cells, growing, dividing, exploring every niche open to them. The coming of fish, forests, dinosaurs and our own species with its need to reckon with everything – all this transforms into a hymn to nature, life and the universe. No two people will have the same experience.
