With an intriguing title, an eye-catching trailer and a well-known cast, surely a film like “3000 Years of Longing” would be an interesting and fantastic movie, especially when you include the fact that the story’s premise involving djinns, or genies, is creative and unique.

I saw this film with my roommate and my suitemate on National Cinema Day. Initially, we intended to see “Bodies Bodies Bodies”; however, there were no seats together, so we decided to go with a movie of which none of us had heard: “3000 Years of Longing.” 

There are a few issues with not knowing anything about the film. First, this film has been released to theaters across the country — a wide release — and yet there was minimal advertising for the film itself. This lack of advertising is harmful for the film’s performance as there will be a lower turn out for the film and the reception for the film could come from limited and niche perspectives.

Another problem is that, as a consumer of various social media platforms, I saw absolutely nothing about this film from popular accounts or even on trending pages. This film has suffered from poor marketing and has also been one of the biggest box office bombs of the year, with a budget of $60 million and a box office revenue of $9.3 million. 

The movie introduces Alithea Binnie, portrayed by Tilda Swinton, a British scholar studying folklore and mystical stories from different cultures. She is a woman living alone and is content with that part of herself. 

Later in the film, she comes across a djinn, portrayed by Idris Elba, who grants her three wishes of her heart’s desires and desperately begs her to make a wish for him to return to the djinn’s realm. 

The exciting element of the film, the djinn’s stories, are no longer seen, and instead, the film focuses on the bland, mediocre life they share.

In order to gain her trust, he tells her three tales from his past. These stories contain romance and betrayal, as well as the dangers of wishing and the cost of greed. She attempts to make simple and easy wishes, but the djinn informs her that her wishes must come from her heart’s desire. The journey into the djinn’s past is the most interesting and fascinating element to this film and makes the plot enchanting, as it is primarily based around intricate storytelling. 

Alithea makes her first wish and brings the djinn back to London to live with her. However, due to the djinn’s differing physiology, he is in conflict with modern technology’s wavelengths and eventually begins to die, until Alithea makes her last two wishes, freeing him. The film ends showing that the two periodically reunite when he comes back from the djinn’s realm to visit her.

One key issue with this film is the detailed and layered plot suddenly becoming filtered into one joint story of Alithea and the djinn in London. 

The relationship between the djinn and Alithea makes the film go sideways. Until this point, the plot’s storytelling is intricate and detailed. It then comes to a screeching halt as the djinn stops telling stories. 

When Alithea makes her first wish, her independence, strength and power are taken away from her, as they are from him, which ruins the romantic potential they could have naturally had.

After her first wish, in which she begs the djinn to love her the way he loved the women from his past, the plot slows down tremendously to the point where it becomes boring. The exciting element of the film, the djinn’s stories, are no longer seen, and instead, the film focuses on the bland, mediocre life they share. 

Her wish contradicts what the film previously established about her character and also pushes a notion that lonely people can never be content with their loneliness and must conform to a heteronormative ideology of finding romance with a long-term partner. 

Another unfulfilled subplot involves the djinn and how he has been haunted by the past and mystical beings. After Alithea makes her wish, the past suddenly stops haunting him. He still vaguely references his past but the hauntings that he described in his stories is not addressed or seen again in the film.

Her wish also makes him obligated to her, which is contradictory to his main motivation to be free. She traps him to be with her and their relationship features a weird power imbalance where he is indebted to her until she makes her three wishes and then he can be free. Additionally, the djinn and Alithea as a pair are not compatible. 

When the djinn tells her his three tales from the past, the romantic stories are exciting, nuanced and complex. The women he pursued were strong and independent, making it so that he fell in love with their independence, strength and power. When Alithea makes her first wish, her independence, strength and power are taken away from her, as they are from him, which ruins the romantic potential they could have naturally had and also makes the romantic element boring and unnecessary.

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The worst thing about this average film is that it had the potential to be an excellent movie, but the forced romance between the two main characters as well as the rushed plot make it go from a unique story to a one-dimensional, stagnant, boring plot. 

The first half of the movie involving the djinn’s stories is clearly carefully crafted and written, but the second half, with its sloppy romance, shallow story and contradictory character retrogression, discredits the movie. 

If you would like to witness a potentially excellent film descend into a disappointing flop, I would recommend you go see it in theaters or on demand and watch with friends to  share your confusion and frustration together.