Raël: The Alien Prophet

People are so gullible, they believe just about anything. I'm surprised that during the old footage of that guru guy getting interviewed when he was young that nobody asked well. Were you taking drugs? Were you on drugs? What drugs did you take? Seriously, I mean yeah I saw UFO and it took him to another planet or whatever other stuff he said, but nobody asked like because that in that day and age drugs were huge. All these cults were like full of drugs so I'm surprised nobody asked like were you on heroin? Did you try LSD? Were you smoking pot like all the time or something like that? Nobody asked any of those questions so I think it's all BS I know people that went on drug trips and said exact same kind of crap And they have that blonde lady that's a chemist to give validation to this because she's really intelligent and she has a degree and she's so smart so of course she believes that it must be true. I just think she's also delusional. She probably had like massive sex orgies at that place and you know that's what most of those cults are all about Due to me, I'm getting no vibes from him of being real all I'm getting vibes of some narcissistic lonely insecure dude that somehow got people to follow him with his BS.

This is just another generic story about a somewhat charismatic cult leader and a bunch of lost people who followed him, willing to accept any kind of nonsense to find structure and direction in their lives. However, this case isn't particularly interesting, and as a documentary, it feels lazy, much like many Netflix documentaries that prioritize viewer engagement over meaningful storytelling or observation of phenomena. Instead of creating yet another mediocre drama with a straightforward narrative, relying on testimonials and archive footage as supporting arguments for whatever predetermined story they want to tell, the documentary could have explored broader themes, such as the phenomenon of cults and their similarities to religions. It could have delved deeper into the emergence and practice of monotheistic religions over the past 3000 years, examining the differences between this cult leader and historical figures from Judea, Mecca, or Vermont. Alternatively, the documentary could have focused on Scientology and confronted the influence of Hollywood head-on.

I understand Netflix's business model; these documentaries are cost-effective to produce, add fresh content to the catalog, and keep viewers engaged for longer periods. However, they often lack cinematic or social value. While Netflix's documentary production budget may be small compared to their fiction projects, it still surpasses that of traditional non-streaming documentary projects. It's disappointing that Netflix doesn't aim higher and instead serves up the same content we've seen on cable TV for years, albeit with the Netflix brand attached.

Very odd series. Has all the trappings of an exposé but doesn't really seem to have much to actually expose. It never explains clearly what exactly the tenets of Raelism are or who Rael is, and then spends three episodes using a lot of scary music and visuals to imply that it's all very bad, but without really giving any clear examples. The main focus seems to be that the Raelians lied about having cloned a child - but if they did, who exactly did that harm? I have no doubt that Rael is a charlatan who has used his sway over people to access attractive young women and enjoy attention and a luxurious lifestyle - and it's hinted that worse stuff went on - but the series doesn't really make it very clear where exactly he differs in this from, say, any given rock star. Presumably there are disaffected Raelians, but we don't really hear from any. Yes, the ones we see all seem deluded, but they also seem fairly content and harmless spreading their message of peace and free love or whatever. But as there presumably is a darker side to all this - otherwise what's the point of the documentary - why isn't it really shown? The main draw is the old footage of Rael and the Raelians, and to be honest just an edited-together collection of that would probably have been more illuminating and interesting.

These voices made my head feel like it was going to explode. Constantly talking over each other in weird cartoon or AI sounding voices. I had to turn it off even though the information seemed interesting enough. I don't even think I can explain it. Hopefully I'm not the only one that feels this way.

It's almost like the backup voices are too loud and the audio is all mixed strangely.

I appreciate that it is more fast paced than a lot of these series and that it isn't set up like some true crime podcast.

I with they would release it with the original dialog and English subtitles. Time to find something else to watch.

OMG this so called documentary was so boring and uninteresting.

A couple of laconical interviews with mostly still practicing Raelians, one ex-Raelian, and an embittered French magistrate, this has to be one of the laziest bit of documentary making I've had the displeasure to watch in some time.

Part way through I thought - has this been made by a Raelian.

No expose on any damage the cult may have done to its members, with seemingly very little in the way of trying to track down and interview former cult members, or look into the finances of the cult, or look into breaches of laws e.g. Fraud over the human cloning claims.

Mainly just interviews with current, very old cult members.

Boring, biased, and just very poor documentary making.