'Oh goodness', I thought when I first saw the trailer for There Will Be Blood. 'Daniel Day Lewis is going to show his "acting genius" again'. I don't know why but something about it made me think it would be pretentious as hell, even though I love director, Paul Thomas Anderson's previous movies, Punch Drunk Love, Magnolia, and Boogie Nights. The last two movies I saw Daniel Day Lewis in were The Last Of The Mohicans and Gangs of New York, where he was okay but not "genius". Annoying maybe. Well it took me until about half-way through There Will Be Blood to find out what the big deal is. I admit- he's awesome. The story is about an oil guy (Daniel Plainview, Lewis' character) whose life is devoted to his oil business and somewhat to his boy. He goes to a town where he meets a young pastor, Eli Sunday, whom he makes a business deal with, provided Plainview will give him money for a new church. As it continues, the story slowly becomes more interesting and more intense until it ends in a bang. Daniel Day Lewis bugged the hell out of me for the first half hour or so until I got used to his awful, grating way of speaking. But Plainview's unlikable-ness was growing and making him actually a much more interesting character as the story continued. By the time the movie was over, I got it: Lewis is awesome. He'll win the Oscar, no doubt. Paul Dano as the pastor is good too but is completely overshadowed next to Lewis. The movie may also win the Oscar for best score but other than that- if it's up against No Country For Old Men, it will lose. No Country is just a better movie all around. This movie is a hard one to rate because it just took so long to become that good- but when it was, it was excellent. The ending gets 5 butters for sure but for the slow start I'll have to deduct a half of a butter, giving this movie 4 1/2 black gold, texas tea butterbits.