Fireball: Besuch aus fernen Welten

One can't go into a Werner Herzog documentary expecting a Discovery Channel or National Geographic style affair. Fireball is characterized by Herzog's iconic eccentricity, off-beat narrative style, quiet but intense narration, and sometimes far fetched and even seemingly non sequitur connections among ideas. He connects science, folklore, art, and other cultural histories through their connections with meteorites. I found this documentary fascinating, mysterious, and in some parts simply beautiful in the humanity on display.

I was curious to watch this documentary as I've always been fascinated about the impact of celestial bodys hitting the earth and it's effect on human evolution, religion, and beliefs. Although beautiful in parts this film has not much new to offer in ways of science, it lacks intrigue becoming somewhat boring all-round. It was more a vignette into peoples lives than it was about meteorites.

Tiff 2020 02

Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds

It's always a joy to listen to Werner Herzog as he goes through his subjects and narrates them and you can see his passion, his excitement for finding unique, hard to find little stories about science, about people around the world and to retell them through his filmmaking skills, to try to share that beautiful things he found in his journey.

However, this film is a bit formless and weak on structure and layout. Herzog and his co-director Clive Oppenheimer just go interview some knowledgeable people and scientists about asteroids and meteorites. There's no arc and momentum about this film, it's just a collection of interviews, locations and some information about meteorites. If you already have an interest about them, this is a must see for you, and if not, well, it's a watchable film but not a very deep or memorable one.

Definitely not as juicy as some of Werner Herzog's other documentaries. Maybe it was the effect Oppenheimer had on the interviewees; maybe he couldn't get as much out of them as Herzog might have. The subject matter is infinitely intriguing but Fireball just didn't get out of 3rd gear.

Just a rambling montage of bits of information that never seem to have a distinct direction or point. Random. Really disappointing. Was expecting so much more. A solid through line with a cohesive vision, but no, not what this is. It's a mess of a documentary by one of the most renowned documentarians of all time. Sad.