I wanted to like this movie ...then i watched it
I'm a pretty big Daniel Day Lewis fan. I think he's one of the great actors left in hollywood. He does not dissapoint in this movie either. He does a great job creating the character that in many ways is very similar to the Butcher character he played in Gangs of New York. However, setting the great acting aside this movie sucked. It was one of those movies i came into expecting to love but ended up hating. I sat through it once and I will not ever set through it again. It was long boring and pretentious. The movie was well acted by all involved but a well acted movie without a true storyline makes it a very unwatchable film. Its a mess from beginning to end. As such i cannot recommend it to anyone out there. I know for some reason a lot of people love this movie but for regular "joe American" this movie will be a borefest. I actually like artsy movies but this one was too much of nothing for me to like it. Not to mention i hated all the characters in it except for maybe Plainview's adopted son and his bit part didn't help out the movie in the least. So there you go. I know I'll get hated by a lot of you out there who love this but i just can't bring myself to review this movie anyway other than honestly. 1 star avoid it if you can.

A Gem for those who love complex Characters
There Will be Blood is a movie that I wanted to see and it did not disappoint. The movie based on the the book "Oil" by Upton Sinclair is a complex story, and kept my attention from start to finish.

The music was great. The mood created by the music made me feel like something was going to happen at any moment that would change the course of the whole movie.

For me, what made the movie not just Good but Great had to be the actors and the characters they portrayed.
Daniel Day Lewis was masterful and deserved the oscar. His Character, Daniel, was my favorite. I wanted to like him so bad. The way he went about his life, the passion he had for his work, His unquenchable thirst for success were qualities they made me root for him. But, and this was what made him such a rich character, his flaws were so overshadowing, I couldn't look past them and embrace him in the movie.
My other favorite was the young H.W. He played did such a masterful job in the role, that I liked him immediately and that never changed from beginning to end.

This movie is heavy on drama and story, and light on humor, action, and anything else that hyptnotizes the masses today. It truly is a GREAT movie, and it's one that should be seen and talked about for years to come.

Tedious, obscure - or both?
To answer the question posed in the title of my review - BOTH!

Daniel Day-Lewis turns in a powerful performance, but his character is not a person the viewer can identify with - which is fine, or would be if there were a sympathetic character in the film to offset his greedy, steely-eyed oil man.

The movie confused me initially by leading me to believe that it was set in Texas - the landscape certainly bears no resemblance to the Southern California oil country - and its opening quarter hour with little or no dialogue was off-putting.

Bleak, depressing, tedious - and deliberately obscure: not characteristics I look for in a film.

Part Greatness, Part BS
I'm shocked to see that the overwhelming majority of reviewers are giving this movie a five star review. Why? The movie does look stunning, and the acting of Daniel Day Lewis is superb. The movie is well done, but the ever important story is not.

Lewis' character in this film is Daniel Plainview. He's a loner and an ambitious beyond belief (really) oil tycoon. He is evil and somehow gets away with being evil unchallenged by anyone. He embarasses the town's preacher multiple times, yet no one in the town seems to care. He kills a man and no one bothers to ask what happened to him. In the end, he is so drunk that he can hardly stand, yet once he does rise, he drinks a lot more and then is able to chase around a sober man and beat him to death. These story flaws ruin the movie. There is very little drama here - just one bad deed by Daniel after another. No explanation why he is the way he is. We know nothing of the man even after having to watch him for over 2 1/2 hours other than that he apparently loathes everyone - including himself.

The attention to detail was remarkable. The oil rigs were authentic as were the townspeople. This movie could have been a very good look at the heart and soul of a robber baron in the early 20th century, but instead was nothing more than a cheap shot at ambition. Unfortunately this movie joins a growing list of movies that could have been great, but chose not to be.

There will be boredom!
Daniel Day Lewis is truly a wonderful actor but this is one long, drawn out movie that goes nowhere. The bowling pin scene at the end is truly bizarre.