Id like to start by putting this out there; I didn't like The Tree of Life. I've written before on why I think it was so revered, but in short the film is a jumble of good ideas poorly edited together. Many people who despise the film often cite the lengthy creation scene as the point where the film lost itself. In my opinion, its the best thing (and the only scene of worth) in the entire piece. A mesmerising sequence, it tracks the Universe from the very start, through vast cosmic structures, to the formation of the Earth, put against hauntingly harmonic singing. Its the sort of thing that could easily be used in science classes to teach a brief history of time. And therein lies the problem; this scene has no place in a film about family life in the fifties. Yes, you can make allegorical links and find hidden meaning in it, but plonk it in any film and you could make those comparisons; it was only Maliks reputation that made it acceptable to read deeply into it. Throughout the film, shots of this type juxtapose the action, but their majesty is weakened by the baggage that surrounds it. As a sequence on its own, however, its breathtaking.