Why the hell did you like this movie?

i just got into with someone on facebook about why they thought this film was any good .i wanted to understand her perspective and when i told her why i didn't like it she got all bothered .Her reason why it was good because "it's not supposed to make sense its just supposed to make you feel " .I responded it made me feel like not caring for feeling about it or the people in it . She seemed to take it personal that i wasn't agreeing with her perspective oh well too each their own .

Humankind cannot bear very much reality

Quick analysis based on your post: you concentrated on the issues which were not really the focus of this film. None of the three stories were ment to be good as stories, per se. It is the open space in between the three stories, the poetic beauty how these issues were linked together, that left me speachless.

To answer your questions: I hate through-the-ages-love-stories and I have never seen Wolverine, nor do I intent to see it anytime soon. I might have some tendencies towards religious pondering, altough as for this movie, I considered it more poetic than religious.

One of the greatest films I have ever seen. It was like watching visual poetry. The question I always ask is how can people not love this film

Maybe they are dead inside?

Dunno.

At first I liked it because of the acting of the two main characters and the cinematics.

Now I'm not too sure. Not to be a snob, but I'm an athiest so I simply cannot agree with any metaphysical morals behind this movie, which is very hard to not accept that it's preaching. I don't think anything good happens after you die.

Then the other interpretation of this film as any way literal, about a guy actually traveling through space or time seems silly.

I just thought it was about a guy who was sad his wife was dying. But those other elements seem impossible to ignore, and I don't like that.

*Here's a ****in' spoiler: Everybody dies.*

First of all you don't mention any deeper thought about the film beyond the obvious three stories. Why were there three storylines ? How did they connect ? What happened in the end ? After finishing the film did you ask yourself those questions ? You probably have no answers and thus the film seemed "really bad".

When something "weird" is happening in a film, something that's not normal or something you don't understand, you have to ask yourself WHY. Why is that happening ? Why is the director/screenwriter showing that to me ? When a film/director/screenwriter is good, there usually is a good answer to those questions. Sometimes you won't find an answer, sometimes you will find the wrong answer, sometimes there is no right answer. This mental effort is necessary in order to increase your understanding of films, specially "harder" films.

I saw the fountain for the first time last night and the company I was with claimed various explanations in the end, mostly that the film was about love. While the credits were playing I was thinking for a couple of minutes and then I more or less said:

"The key is death, that's what happened in the end of each of the stories. The only true story was the middle one, closer to our time. The past story was a visualization of the novel the female character wrote which in turn was a reimagination of their current story. The queen is slowly but certainly dying and she sends her hero to an impossible in order to save her. The future story is a visualization of the male character mostly based on things his wife said (story about the dead body growing into a tree, story about the star dying) but there are some of his own ideas in there like the tree giving immortality. In the end of all three stories there's always death. What I got from that is that you can't fight or escape death."

Those were my thoughts. To answer your more specific questions. Past story was simplistic because it had limitations, an amateur novel that was a parallel to their current situation. Future story is far fetched because it's a hopeless dream by someone desperate trying to shoehorn in things from his current situation. The present story, sure it was a bit melodramatic but I had absolutely no problem with it because all of that served a purpose. Big love, slow but certain death, fight for cure. Finding the cure wasn't important, it was just a tool to show you can't fight death.

I've been an atheist since very young despite being raised in an very religious country. I don't think believing or not had anything to do with the film. I'm open to all kinds of films and art in general but overall I don't watch many romantic films. I think Wolverine is a cool superhero but I'm not a fan, haven't read a single comic in my life.

When watching a director or a film that you yourself or others consider great, i'd suggest to try hard to find answers and not rush to conclusions that it was bad. Sometimes it's not bad, you just didn't get it.

I saw this movie 2-3 years after my treatment for cancer. I wasn't ready for it and it almost broke me. I think I understand why some people hate it but for me it was a beautiful and painful experience about the permanence of death and the traces someone leaves behind with those that loved them.

I thought it was artsy-fartsy nonsense. This is not a "thinking man's" movie, it's spiritual diarrhea. If you're religious you'll probably like it.

Sig: "U" "PPL" "WAT" etc. are not words. Grow up. "then" is a reference to time not a comparison.

I saw this in the theater when it was new, and I loved it.
I like movies that are filmed well and leave me wondering in the awe of it all.
Maybe similar to Scorsese's Hugo, The Fountain is very well crafted and feels like a labor of love, a very intelligent film for people who want to be challenged and mesmerized and caught up in the beauty of it all. It's luxurious, mysterious, and emotive. That I didn't always understand how the whole thing came together ADDED to my enjoyment.
Such an ambitious movie.