[b.miller]

no spoilers in this... at least i dont think there are. the jist of the movie since it didn't get a wide release is werner herzog doing a fake documentary about an alien and a manned mission to his native planet. Sounds sci-fi and fun, right? Well it's Herzog... and it's made with all stock photography from NASA and underwater diving footage intercut with short interviews conducted by Herzog and Brad Douriff playing the alien doing an extended monologue directly to the camera.

well... i saw Wild Blue Yonder in the midst of a film festival where I was seeing 4-5 films a day, so i was pretty tired when i saw it... but from what i remember I haven't changed my mind on it. Here's what I liked:

-Brad Douriff as the alien. his little monologues are funny and I think i saw that building that he's shot against in some other movie recently.

-The interviews with the theoretical physicists were the most exciting part for me.

and my gripes:

-the interviews with the theoretical physicists were the most exciting part for me!

-it's like 45 minutes too long. A lot of those chapters could be half as long as they were.

so i think the connection is i respond most to the stuff that Herzog shot. The stock photography really lost me, so I could never get into it while listening to that damned Sardinian vocal music.

Afterward I found myself waiting in line next to a guy who had seen it and he went off about the science not being right. I guess he was a physics major or something... I don't really care about the science not being right though - it's meant to be a Herzog "mockumentary" - but for whatever other reasons may be, i just didn't get into it at all.

Also, knowing it's not real or even supposed to be real put the distance even farther. I felt like Herzog could have gotten to the same emotions dealing with a real subject (like he did with Grizzly Man).

That said, The White Diamond is GREAT.