The Murfreesboro Pulse, along with countless others, even the Academy itself, have encouraged moviegoers to see the film There Will be Blood. I was confident last weekend that I was in for a wonderful experience in cinema.

The screenplay is adapted from an Upton Sinclair novel by Paul Thomas Anderson, who also directs it. He has written other successful films, Boogie Nights being his most notable.

I could not believe I was watching the same film that has been so hyped up for so long now. A film that was nominated for as many Oscars as No Country for Old Men.

This movie is not worthy of being in the same sentence as No Country for Old Men, let alone nominated for film of the year. I would have boycotted the Academy Awards for life had they given There Will Be Blood the award for Best Picture. Fortunately, they gave it to the right one.

I am still a little puzzled, however, that it was even nominated, perhaps because Daniel Day-Lewis stars. He is good in it, sure, but he does nothing in this film that he did not already do in Gangs of New York a few years ago. There IS one scene where he lets a small but super-pious church baptize him so they will let him install a tunnel under their land that is amusing. He is an oil-man, you see. His character is difficult to understand and not well constructed at all.

There Will Be Blood is plain tiresome. It’s the kind of movie that makes you want to just get up and leave, because life is short. But you keep waiting, because, hey, this movie is being hailed by some as the movie of the decade. It got eight Oscar nominations. Good cinematography and suspenseful score do not help a three-hour-long stretch of boring storytelling. There is nothing good I can find to say about There Will Be Blood other than the score.

If you are dying to see this movie, as I was, I highly recommend waiting for the DVD, which will be out soon. In the meantime, you can satisfy your Daniel Day-Lewis craving and save some cash by simply renting Gangs of New York.