Review of The Wild Blue Yonder (2005) by David S — 07 Aug 2007

I can only admire the sheer audacity of the idea here. Herzog constructs a sci-fi story around real NASA space mission film and other scientific stock footage, using the linking device of narration by a disgruntled alien explaining where both humanity and his own species went wrong. It's often hard to be sure where the division between fact and fiction comes (which is surely deliberate).

Unfortunately the film doesn't quite come off, largely because the story is too slight to sustain a feature film. Some of the stock footage is intriguing or beautiful, but the viewer's enjoyment of it is complicated by lengthy waits for the narrative to advance. Edited down, this could have made a really great 30-minute short; as it is, it sometimes drags. It's still worth seeing, though, not least for the stunning underwater footage.