The epitome of cinematic pretention: Tree of Life

Somewhere in Terrence Malick's "The Tree of Life" there's a half-way decent movie trying to get out, but this story line gets absolutely smothered beneath the cinematic pretension, the heavy-handed symbolism, the mish-mash of new age music and cliched imagery, and the fuzzy-headed ideas, if you can call them that - and we're left with a movie that's painfully confusing, way too long, and ultimately, in my view, ridiculous. Story, such as it is: family in Waco in the mid 50s (I think) with 3 sons and autocratic dad (Brad Pitt surprisingly good in this role), which leads to some powerful scenes of cruel discipline and family fights - Pitt is also a musical prodigy manque and a would-be inventor or entrepreneur, but these aspects are barely developed. We learn in first moments, flashing forward to the late 60s, that the middle son has died (never learn how or why, possibly in Vietnam?), and then the mom and dad talk in whispers for about 30 minutes about trying to reach him: as we see some rather beautiful imagery of the creation of the entire cosmos, which will remind you maybe of National Geographic World perhaps - honestly, I have no idea what this is about. Reminded me a little of the obelisk in Kubrick - no one understood it but some bought into its ineffable significance, and I didn't. Sean Penn plays the oldest brother (for most of the film it's not clear whom he plays) in the present day, talking about missing his brother every day - believe me, nothing is made of these father-son or brother-brother relationships, they're just stated, presented - as if Malick doesn't care about relationships, or people - we're all just insignificant blips within the cosmos I guess. (For a good film on similar themes, in comparison, think about The Great Santini.) Tree of Life ends with characters at various ages all meeting up as they walk in criss-cross along a wide strand, with hundreds of others, too - one of the most idiotic visions of postlife or heaven if you will that I've ever seen - even worse than The Lovely Bones. Perhaps its an homage to the many mysterious movie endings from the great days of European film: Nights of Cabiria, Discrete Charm, Seventh Seal. But here it feels not mysterious and odd but forced and pretentious and no longer original. And what is the message? That we all will be redeemed - even the cruel, tormenting father - for no particular reason, just because that's the way the cosmos works? Can anyone honestly tell me that you learned a single thing about this movie or that it provoked any single original thought in your mind?