The Wild Blue Yonder

...but by the end of it, I was left with the feeling that there was a slice of my life I'll never get back. This is an easy film to summarize, though. Good, sometimes arresting, imagery strung on a thin but interesting plot, all accompanied by the world's most annoying sound track. The pacing is glacial. The scenes play out way too long - which is emphasized by the droning atonal background "music".

I can appreciate the parable of being good stewards of our home planet. I can appreciate the wry wit with which the subject of aliens is treated. What's inexcusable, though, are the gross technical gaffes laying around like mines in a film which otherwise goes out of its way to establish its technical credentials.

I can understand and appreciate what Herzog was trying to accomplish with this film. Still, a misfire is a misfire...

When their planet started to die, an alien race set out to evacuate the Andromeda system to other places within the universe that were inhabitable. Several of their ships reached Earth several generations later but by then the founding fathers had died off and left behind a lesser generation. On arrival on Earth things did not go as well as they had planned – attempts to build themselves a capital city to rival Washington DC end with a crumbling, desert collection of ruins. Looking at the journey itself and the problems they encountered, a surviving alien recalls the whole thing.

It would take a real talent to do it but if you were to take all the elements in the plot here you could easily produce an effects-heavy sci-fi epic that stretches over several films or books. So how much talent does it take to do just that using one actor, some expert contributors, underwater footage from under the ice flow and lots of stock footage? I'm not sure of the answer but the second way seems harder because it does deliver the goods in this fascinating film that dances along the line between interesting and pretentious. I found the story worked really well and the overall effect was to produce a sci-fi film as poetry, full of ideas and emotions. It is hard to describe but I found it effortlessly engaging and enjoyed it a great deal.

Of course the delivery was always going to be challenging and I can understand why it has got such a low rating on this very site. It is not a Hollywood sci-fi film, in fact it is not an easy film to put into a box and sell in such a marketplace because it is so unique. The direction is very daring and mostly works because the writing is there to do it. The dialogue is the story and it is very well delivered by Dourif to the point where he is never less than fascinating due to his words but also his convincing delivery of those words. The use of stock footage and locations that are very non-sci-fi are carried by Dourif's story telling but the problems come when he is absent for longer than a few minutes. Extended footage of diving below the ice sheet is interesting but it is the same thing over and over so, without a narrator to move us on and keep us interested, I felt that the film got close to boring. Fortunately this only happens a handful of times. The musical score is again very unusual for sci-fi but it does capture a strange sort of otherworldy sombre air.

Overall then this will probably put most viewers off very quickly. It is as much a piece of poetry as it is a piece of cinema and it is certainly not what you expect from a "sci-fi epic" although that is unquestionably what the story is. At times boring, the film is generally very engaging and interesting and it is well worth checking out to experience it as much as anything else.

I caught this film on BBC4 while flicking through the channels last night. An hour and twenty minutes later I sat in front of my TV, knowing that I had experienced a work of rare film poetry. The plot (and here's the 'spoiler', not that it would spoil any enjoyment of the film), is that an alien from the Andromeda system (or a seriously confused human),played by Brad Dourif, who landed on Earth after fleeing his frozen world, tells the story of a group of Earth astronauts who travel to the frozen Andromedan planet and then come back to Earth. Brad Dourif tells his story from an abandoned city, full of half-finished buildings and broken trailers, that was to have been the mighty capital of Andromedans on Earth. The story is illustrated by footage of NASA missions, diving expeditions, physics lectures, and ancient news reels. What really makes it, however, is the soundtrack. I don't know what the music is, but it sounded like some version Mongolian yodelling. Juxtaposed with the images and storyline, the whole thing becomes strangely moving. Please don't expect a conventional Hollywood storyline- there a many long, apparently monotonous sequences, perhaps reminiscent of Space Odyssey. Just relax into it. If you have any depth, you will not be disappointed.

I just saw this film at the L.A. Film Fest and I was intrigued by the idea. Brad Dourif was the perfect choice for the alien role and even though I do not believe this film will be embraced by mainstream American film goers, I think this is one of the most beautifully photographed films in some time, which of course is a tribute to a master filmmaker like Werner Herzog. Herzog is definitely one of the most talented directors in the world who hasn't really found a niche in America, which is a real shame. This is a great film which I don't think any other filmmaker could have made so beautiful, comical, and overall enjoyable.

Well, you know you make friends and any good friend you don't abandon, no matter what.

We get old, things change. We relax into what we still imagine is risky adventure. And in friends we don't point out the reality that what might have been important then, isn't now.

Herzog is a friend, a good one. I've trusted him in the past and when he's let me down it has been honorably. So I'll come to anything he makes, even though I know sometimes I'll have to make excuses for him.

And that's what I have to do here, apologize, justify.

When Herzog approaches a project, you can see that it has only one conceptual thrust. Just one. That's been fine for me because he takes that one idea — whatever it is — to such extremes with such honesty and commitment it blossoms into levels that resonate.

The idea here is similar to one he has explored before: the images don't matter, anything can be used, even stock images. The story doesn't matter at all; any tripe can suffice, the more generic the better. There need be no point, no message, no root into your soul, or the group soul.

All we need is aeolian sound, edited in a way that corresponds in an obvious way with splashes of color. Its the rhythm of the thing, established aurally and only then visually, with the visual pace lagging. Its a way of letting us know that anyone who does this can impart religion of any content.

Throughout is a supposedly wised up guy constantly reminding us that he could have told us so.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.