This film examines all that occurred to prepare the world that stands before us now: science and spirit, birth and death, the grand cosmos and the minute life systems of our planet.

At the Cannes Film Festival market screening of Voyage of Time in 2014, Malick and his producers showed footage shot in locations such as Southwestern U.S, Hawaii, Iceland, Monterey, Chile, Palau, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and elsewhere.

[14] Dan Glass (The Matrix trilogy) is said to be the special effects supervisor on the film, with Douglas Trumbull (2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Blade Runner) as his consultant.

The consensus states: "Voyage of Time marries dazzling nature footage and painterly visual effects to give audiences a tour through the universe that is by turns beguiling and profound.

"[27] In The New York Times, A. O. Scott called it a "fusion of digital imagery and photographic imagination that seems at once utterly natural and completely impossible.

The consensus states: "Voyage of Time: Life's Journey might be minor Malick, but for acolytes -- or viewers up for an absorbingly deliberate look at the cosmos -- it's well worth a watch.