Rating: 2/5
Zardoz is a floating rock head that tells a group of outsiders who to kill. But before we can invest in that fiction, Zed (Sean Connery) kills the man controlling Zardoz à la Wizard of Oz (wiZARD of OZ) and launches into a vision of the future so convoluted that it takes the rest of the movie to explain it
Or rather, that’s what it chooses to do. What we see is so on-the-nose — aging is a punishment for crimes where the elderly are sequestered from society, apathy is literally a disease sweeping through the world, etc. — that it makes The Matrix feel nuanced
Its biggest crime is just that it’s boring. It’s not as smart as it thinks it is, but more in an eye-rolling kind of way — standing around, quoting TS Eliot and Nietzsche about truth and whatnot
Visually, it’s pretty enjoyable — the image of a giant rock head vomiting guns is wild stuff. And Sean Connery’s costuming is absolutely iconic. So just put it on mute and play some space rock — you’ll get more out of it