The Wild Blue Yonder
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Movie Reviews of The Wild Blue Yonder
Movie Review: Herzog in Space
Summary: 4 Stars
"The Wild Blue Yonder" has taken an inordinately long time to finally make it to DVD. Although the cover boasts "by the director of Grizzly Man", Werner Herzog actually completed this film before his award winning documentary. This film highlights impressively Herzog's attitude to the documentary form. Although the narrative is pure science fiction fantasy (a fact Herzog over emphasises) almost every aspect of the film aside from Douriff's narration is documentary footage. Not only is it documentary, but it is also found footage, which is also case with "Grizzly Man". I'm in two minds whether this indicates a lack of creative imagination on Herzog's part (after all "Wild Blue Yonder" is a rehash of the original narrative of "Fata Morgana") or whether it shows Herzog's prophetic intelligence in using a variety of digital media to create his vision. The most impressive aspect is the underwater footage shot in the Antarctic, it truly is otherworldly and one could almost believe we are seeing another planet. The film does however get bogged down in a lot of mathematical nonsense in a number of sequences in which Herzog is clearly over indulging himself. Naturally this aids authenticity, but it is not particularly interesting. But the soundtrack which combines haunting Cello playing with Senegalese and Sardinian vocalists is mesmerising, evocative and also quietly disturbing as it provides the backdrop for mankind's limitations. The film has weaknesses, but this is Herzog so he can be forgiven for once again creating something totally strange, alien and unique.
A big thank you must go to newcomers Subversive Cinema for releasing the film, the DVD itself also has some pretty fine extras, an indispensable commentary with Herzog and Douriff and some informative and entertaining documentaries and interviews. I look forward to more from Subversive Cinema, they could be a distributor of note.
Movie Review: Whoa!
Summary: 4 Stars
This movie stopped me in my tracks. Simple photography, simple story, simple presentation. It figures into a thought provoking presentation that forces people to say 'why not?'. Perhaps it is sad that we need such stimulus to make us think. But we are lucky to have the opportunity to have our curiousity piqued enough to investigate Werner Herzog's other films.Movie Review: not his best
Summary: 3 Stars
I'd say that "The Wild Blue Yonder" isn't Herzog's best film. It lacks the passion that I find in other films of his, but some of the visuals are worth it. For Herzog fans, I think it's worth seeing, if for no other reason than to gain further insight to his film making and style.Movie Review: The Wild Blue Yonder
Summary: 2 Stars
Weird, will definitely be a cult favorite. Found the underwater photography/video a little disappointing.Movie Review: Scientifically Illiterate Vogon Poetry.
Summary: 1 Stars
Some would argue that this is "art" and should not be judged in the same way as conventional "entertainment" films are. That might be true to some extent, but I contend that it is really just a very poorly made, poorly acted, poorly narrated, poorly conceived failure.
I picked it up thinking, "Cool, a science fiction film by an avant-garde director with an environmentalist message. Right up my alley." What followed was a brief period of bafflement, followed by disbelief and outrage as I realized how horrible this movie is.
This is movie features extensive use of NASA footage (mostly inside scenes of the space shuttle and lectures/interviews) and some truly beautiful Antarctic undersea footage. Okay so far. It has a strange and beautiful soundtrack, also very much okay as far as I'm concerned.
But the story... Fearing contamination from an alien disease, NASA sends up an ad-hoc space shuttle mission which immediately determines (via badly repurposed SOHO and other solar observatory footage) that the entire Milky Way galaxy is inhospitable, so we'd better go to the edge of the Amdromeda Galaxy instead. In the space shuttle. Using completely bastardized Lagrange Point orbital mechanics (a cool lecture in its natural context) to magically transit the 3 or so million light years to Andromeda overnight. The astronauts then spend two days scuba diving in the liquid helium (-260 deg. C) planet they find there, and decide that this is (of course) the perfect place to put a new base. They then travel (forward) in time (not relativistically, but parallel-universtacularly) while being transmuted into pure light and reassembled back on a now-abandoned Earth, which shore looks purty without all those people. Roll credits.
All that might be forgiven if... um... uh.... No, all that is unforgivable. But it's made significantly worse by the flat performance turned in by the film's only actor, Brad Dourif. His is by far the weakest performance in the film.
If I were one of the scientists whose work was quoted in this movie, I would be so unhinged by the ordeal as to waste the rest of my days searching for ways to go back in time in a trans-galactic wormhole-surfing space shuttle to dip Werner Herzog in liquid helium and prevent this film from being completed. Sadly, the time for proactively dipping Werner Herzog in liquid helium is gone forever. But it is (hopefully) not too late for you to turn your back on this pretentious atrocity. Run, I beg of you. It's too late for me; save yourselves.
(An addendum: Don't believe the reviewers who imply that people who dislike this movie simply lack the sophistication to appreciate it for what it is. I enjoyed the original Russian "Solaris", which is certainly no popcorn movie. And one of my favorites of all time is "Koyaanisqatsi" - a film which consists entirely of plotless, soundless documentary footage with a score that prominently features toneless Hopi vocals. So I can appreciate the avant garde, and I still say this is the worst film I've ever seen. Honest. You're better off watching two hours of security camera footage from an empty underground parking garage.)