I think this is the worst piece of sadistic, fatuous crap that I have ever seen. Von Trier is clearly seeing how completely he can pull the wool over art-house viewers. It is also an abuse of Wagner's magnificent music. In addition to the ridiculous science-fiction framework (it is conceivable that if a planet 10 times the mass of the earth was heading right at us, it might at least make the evening news, but nobody even seems to be aware of it). Also, an abject that massive would create a horrendous gravitational effect which would dramatically alter the Earth's (and the Moon's) orbits, create massive earthquakes and huge tides that would overwhelm all coastal cities, etc. I couldn't stop laughing in the last scene when the planet nearly fills the whole sky and the sea in front of the mansion is not even disturbed a bit. Oh please. And the cheap CGI rendering of nebulae etc. are not worthy of a B movie (see The Tree of Life for breathtaking handling of such images, created by a master filmmaker). The absurdly long wedding scene, with every art-house black-tie trope imaginable, was just insufferable. What a piece of garbage.
Review of Melancholia
