Frustrating genius

I know what you mean, id go as far as saying TTOL is a masterpiece.

However, you say characters in TTW come across as hollow, empty and disconnected - I think this is intentional to show the challenges of love with different personalities, problems or bad times. Maybe the characters wanted love but there weren't made for each other.

My problem with film was I struggled to connect and relate to the characters, I connected and cared for them in TTRL, TTW, TNW etc etc and I felt the score, as good as it was I wanted a bit more power and strong pieces when the classical is used like TTOL.

Well, for a lot of the film they were supposed to come across rather disconnected. Marina was much more in love with Neil, than was reciprocated by him. It was ultimately his "disconnected" nature and fear of commitment that caused his relationship conflicts. But I really cared for both of them, particularly Marina, and I really REALLY just wanted everything to work out in the end for her. In my opinion it did, but not through Neil, rather some other higher understanding and state of mind. Perhaps you liked the beginning and end, because those parts were much more optimistic than the others?

Not many people have basements in California.

The film's problem is that it borrows too liberally from Tree of Life. There are a couple of scenes that quite frankly are spin-offs from that film. Its always a bad thing when it feels like the director is simply recycling visual and thematic material from his previous film, especially a director like Malick whose relies heavily on style and delivery.

one of my favorite things about to the wonder IS the fact that I cant connect or relate to the characters. I like how it feels like flashes of memory. I like that we never hear anyones name. I like how we float above the characters and swoop in when Malick wants us to. its just another way to tell a story. malick and everyone else has done it the other way many times. I can imagine just fine what backstory malick would have given these characters... its no big deal... you dont need it every time.
A lot of the people who loved the tree of life, which by the way is one of the best 5 movies ever, couldnt find anything to hold onto with this one. I guess we've found those peoples limits for this type of story telling. I guess people think if theres not more structure or character development that the movies too easy to make, or it can be faked or something. I guess I see this is just the next level of needing to be spoon fed something, just like how hollywood films spoon feed you most of the time. We've found a cut off point within art house fans. TTOL to TTW for some is like Mulholland Dr. to INLAND EMPIRE for Lynch fans. Most just couldnt go further down the bunny hole because it looks like its mocking itself or is forced or something. Neither is true, all four of these movies are perfect.
All Im saying is I want to see the boundries of cinema get stretched and thats what this is. this is definintely something you experience on a different level than TTOL. Its more of a dreamy/memory type thing so you have to find the creativity and art in that world... almost like surrealism, but something different. Maybe more people just like the old Malick. Maybe the new Malick is better. Maybe this film is flashes of memory malick has since this movies based on a time in his own life. I hope Malick stays on this path and goes further if he can somehow.

I wish he would have relied less on improv and wandering people in fields. It loses it's punch...