In our first part we reviewed "There Will Be Blood" where we witnessed the
first pioneers setting up their oil businesses in the early 20th century but
those days are gone now. The world has changed. It is no longer the playground
of lone tycoons, but now everyone is involved. This world belongs to the
nations who are ready to start wars over oil. It is the world of lobbyists
and megacorporations that try to manipulate democratic governments to satisfy
their own dark wishes. Behind the scenes there are agents of death ready to
commit acts so vile that even human decency is a commodity that is for sale
if the price is right.

In the second part of Oil Conscious Film Review we will be looking at a film
from 2005 called "Syriana". It is a political drama where oil is the catalyst
for a series of geopolitical events that happen around the globe somewhat
simultaneously. During the running time of 128 minutes Syriana introduces
characters at such quick pace that even Quentin Tarantino and George R. R.
Martin together would struggle to find ways to whack them off the screen. But
this is more political movie where everything requires more sophistication and
and it is important to make the viewer think and ask questions and those
questions I surely had. Most of the time they were "Who's that guy?" and
"Who are those dudes?" and "Did I already see this man in some scene?" and
most of the time I had no clue how they were contributing to the plot.
With the myriad of characters I felt like I was part of some botched Facebook
party invitation that my aunt sent rather than a movie. Some actors I would of
course recognize because the film had George Clooney and Matt Damon in it or
maybe it was Ocean's Eleven because I kept flipping the channel whenever I was
unable to follow Syriana's plot, which actually happened a lot. George Clooney
won an Oscar as a supporting character because the alternative for the
voters was to admit that they don't get the plot either. That is a good way
to save dignity for everyone and no further questions need to be asked. I
am tempted to write spoilers here so that if you were thinking about watching
this movie, it would feel useless after reading this review. However, I don't
seriously have a clue what this film was about so I'm unable to do that.

Syriana probably does justice to the reality showing us that geopolitical
actors with many overlapping interests results in a tangled, convoluted web.
But from the perspective of a viewer, this all looks like what would be
the result if Phileas Fogg had a camcorder and he was now going to rub salt
in our wounds after he won his bet. It's a disconnected clipshow that can only
be enjoyed by the person who put it together. Shame on you, Phileas Fogg!

I give this movie 2 gallons out of 5.