If director Terrence Malick lived life by a mantra, we’d put good money on that mantra being ‘Slow and steady wins the race’. The cult director of Badlands and The Thin Red Line has been making movies for over 30 years, but until recently he still only had four feature directing credits to his name.

His fifth and latest is The Tree Of Life, a CG-infused dramatic human-struggle genre-splicer that seemingly takes its title from Norse mythology, and has been consistently shrouded in mystery. But like all of Malick’s films, Tree has taken its time getting to the big screen.

With attempts to premiere the film at Cannes 2010 falling through and word that CGI work was coming along at a snail’s pace, Tree was stirring and frustrating expectant fans in equal measure. Which only served to make the project even more enticing. Because Tree was looking like it just might be Malick’s most ambitious, outrageous work to date...