Three Thousand Years of Longing

6,5 / 10

Mythology versus causality, abstractness versus science, George Miller’s Three Thousand Years of Longing is a vibrant storytelling anthem which thrives through its phasing sound transitions and otherworldly, expensive set pieces constructed by Idris Elba’s energy-charged Djinn and is utterly dependent on the immersion of his stories. An annoying issue in this mystic journey however lies in Miller’s indecisiveness to craft a fully imaginative story for Tilda Swinton’s narratologist Alethia Binnie which chimes into the aforementioned conflict between fiction and reality.

It feels like the director listened to Imagination’s “Just an Illusion” and decided to jump out of the lyrics for a moment in favor of humor and an already existent self-confidence from the narratologist. Stories, which serve as an emotional anchor and a coping mechanism in solitude, are the beating heart of the film which makes the transcending appearance of the Djinn slightly confusing. There’s “magic in the air” to be found in the heartfelt second act, but strangely not so much between the Djinn and Alithea in the present as their chemistry gets noticeably pushed while the story leaps to its easily digestible ending.