Review of Encounters at the End of the World (2007) by Nick M — 27 Jan 2009

This is one weird film. I understand the idea Herzog was trying to explore, going to the ends of the world and seeing how things work, the people this place attracts, and literally exploring the fringes of society, and I do think that is a captivating idea, sadly once we are in Antarctica and talking to these people the reality starts to set in, they simply are not that interesting and really not all that exciting.

I think it is very telling that we did not spend much more than ten or fifteen minutes with any single person. The work that Herzog explores with the scientists is interesting, and the shots of Antarctica are beautiful.

The seals, the penguin, the volcano, the dives, all are beautiful to watch, but paired with the overpowering score and the fact that one can only watch these sequences for so long, I found the whole experience to be a little unsatisfying.

I think the biggest problem that I had with the film is that the documentary never provided me with enough information to make me feel more educated about Antarctica, only to make me slightly aware that there are people there doing work and research, plus the film never had a theatrical feel, mostly feeling like a Discovery channel special rather than a storied documentary coming from one of the genre's most famous names.

Some of the film is good, a lot is bad, and a good deal is beautiful, that is probably the best way to sum up what I took away from Encounters. 2.98972345983215.