Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022)

George Miller has apparently been wanting to make this film for years, and on the back of the success of Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) was always going to be allowed some slack in creating whatever he wanted. The films’ sequel, Furiosa (still scheduled for release in 2024 although that remains to be seen) has been in development hell for a while, and even though it looks like it’s now back on track, Miller has taken some time away to work on a new project. It's one that now arrives in the form of Idris Elba as a genie, telling his life story to Tilda Swinton’s stubborn academic, who has brought him forth by purchasing an object in an antique store and accidentally releasing him in her hotel room. There’s clearly plenty of influence at work here, from Aladdin (1992) to the original Arabian Nights tales in the eighteenth century. Swinton’s performance is suitably Swinton; always engaging and never less than convincing, and Elba (who can be prone to playing himself at times) proves a compelling storyteller, offering his life story to Swinton’s Alithia, a tale that proves to be the backbone of the film. Although the story is never boring, there’s not a huge amount more to the film than that; plenty has been spent on CGI which, despite being perfectly fine, does more to distract you from the slightness of the plot rather than offer anything really meaningful to the film. Three Thousand Years Of Longing passes the time, and Miller has clearly put plenty into it, but it does nothing to excite or invigorate in the way that Miller’s previous film did, which is a shame. 6.5/10