This should've been budgeted accordingly and shot all at once. Make the full commitment or don't.

Part 1 is just not narratively focused enough for a film, which I think is the biggest flaw. He clearly approached this as a streaming series, which I think it will play much better as, and I'm sure someone will put up money for him to finish it that way.

I certainly can't wait for parts 2 & 3, and I really hope that 4 will get done. I absolutely loved the movie.

I liked this a lot. Its obviously super episodic but each segment has a nice build and I look forward to Chapter 2.

I saw this over the July 4th weekend and agree with several of the comments - while it was beautiful to look at it lacked the narrative focus and was quite disjointed at times. Costner clearly had sprawling ambitions for this and maybe part 2 reigns it in a bit so some of the characters get a chance to breathe and develop. Also, the editing seemed off to me in certain parts (not just the final montage) -- I'm pretty sure several scenes made the cutting room floor. Will be interesting to see what those were at some point.

This will be on Max starting August 23.

Tried watching this on Max and made it about an hour before stopping. Will probably finish it later, but aside from great visuals and cinematography, this movie just isn't clicking with me so far. Lots of melodrama.

We watched Part 1 last night.

It's entertaining, despite its 3 hour run time. I don't think it's anything particularly special or stands out from other Westerns

I was pretty disappointed. I only made it half-way thru it and by then, I was checking my phone mostly. I just couldn't get into it at all. I was expecting something like Open Range or Dances with Wolves type of filming and I felt it was like a made for TV movie with a bunch of no-name actors. I recognized a couple of faces here and there, but none of them could keep my interest. It was just a bit too dragged out and slow mostly. I don't know if it got any better after the half-way point, but I just didn't like it.

I watched the first two hours tonight and boy, people were not kidding. This is a slog.

For so much time spent on talking, the actual character development is zero. Who knew you could make a major 30 minute "Cowboys & Indians" battle so boring? And did anyone actually read this story before trying to film it? Because the various shifts, the multitude of uninteresting characters and situations, the unnecessary dialogue that starts, staggers, stops with no real point...I mean, what the hell?

And I actually went into this thinking I might like it since I recently saw Hostiles (Western, poor box office, lackluster reviews, 2+ hours, etc.) and fucking loved it. But dang, this movie just meanders all over the place. Scenes just shift when things seem to be going somewhere, characters are killed that appears you are supposed to care about but they were just introduced, mumbled dialogue throughout, dull action scenes, etc. Hell, there is a basic Western "showdown" scene where they literally talk each other to death for near 15 minutes before the action finally happens. Then it just feels the entire conversation meant nothing and went nowhere anyway after the guns are finally drawn.

I am going to finish the final trudging hour tomorrow, but I can totally see why this failed. And this will not put my butt in a theater seat for Part Two.

This appears to be another Kevin Costner folly but one that will likely bite him in the ass.

I actually enjoyed this quite a bit. Of course, I’m a sucker for sprawling epic westerns like this. Theres definitely some flaws though. I still think it was a mistake not to shoot this in 2.35:1. I know there is/was a plan to make this into a limited TV event but they still could have used widescreen. With all the beautiful scenery Costner filmed for this, it is just missing a certain cinematic feel to it.

I’m also not sure why they couldn’t give this chapter some type of conclusion. It’s kind of a slap in the face to sit through a 3 hour film just to have it end with a “Next time on Horizon…” montage.

Overall though, I appreciate what Costner was going for with this. It looks and feels authentic and I’m trusting that (assuming Costner gets to wrap the series up) it will all come together in the end.

I just finished watching this and loved every minute of it. Yeah, the montage was kinda odd, but not for its mere existence. It's that there's no clear demarcation between the film proper and what is a trailer for part 2.

Sadly, my disc was defective ( I had some minors pixelation about 30 minutes in and then suddenly the disc froze at 1:09 into the movie, though I was able to get the rest of the disc to play without further issues). Fortunately, Amazon is already sending me a replacement disc. I look forward to using that as an excuse to watch it all over again.

Finished this last night and really enjoyed it. Had to split it over two nights but sign me up for the next 2 installments im in.

Based on the next time at the end of the movie I assume all the different story threads will wind up in the frontier town of horizon eventually. The only thing that was had for me to grasp was how much time had passed throughout the movie. It think its Sienna Millers character whose husband was killed and seemed like she moved on quickly tough I guess in that situation you kinda have to.

The tilting of the three crosses by the river and the age of Jenna Malone's kid are two ways the movie marks the passage of time. It seems to be at least four years since we first see Jenna Malone and when last we see her kid.

There's a screening of this tomorrow night with Costner doing a Q&A. I ended up watching it on MAX to prep for it. As everyone else has mentioned, the sum of all its parts don't quite make it a whole and you can see where, maybe in his mind, this plays out like an extended mini-series. The added inclusion of what's to come at the end doesn't help either. I'm interested to see where this goes. Hopefully, he gets to finish and present all of them. Will be interesting to hear him talk about it.

This was added to Netflix.

Is Chapter 2 still getting a theatrical release, or is this a hint that it'll go straight to streaming?

WB didn't lose any money. They were just a simple distributor. Costner and his investors put up all the money... even the marketing. Might be testing the waters to see if it does well and then re-negotiate the offer Netflix previously made to help finish 3 and 4 (and maybe throw in Part 2).

edit: I see there a bunch of other 2024 WB films on Netflix (Dune 2, Watchers, Furiosa, etc.). Seems like a bulk license.

I'm cool with whatever it takes to get the complete saga made, but I hope there will also be physical releases of the remaining Chapters.