Além do Azul Selvagem

Wild Blue Yonder, The (2005)

** (out of 4)

An alien planet starts to die so their inhabitants head off to find life in another universe. Their ships eventually land on Earth and years later one of the surviving aliens (Brad Dourif) recalls their journey. This is an extremely bizarre science-fiction film but would you really expect anything less from Herzog? I wouldn't call this a bad film but at the same time I couldn't call it a good film either so I'm somewhere down the middle on it. I think it has a brilliant idea and for the most part the idea is created very well but in the end I couldn't help but feel this would have worked better as a forty-minute film instead of a feature length (even though it still only runs 75-minutes). The visual look of the film is quite impressive with various stock footage used to tell the story. The Antarctica footage, which Herzog would later use in his documentary Encounters of the End of the World, makes for a unique "frozen sky" of outer space. The underwater scenes are going to be alien just about to everyone watching the film so to use this as another alien outpost (outer space) was a very good idea. Dourif has gathered some heat for his performance but I'm sure it's exactly what the director wanted and overall I thought it was fine. It's certainly out there but any alien encounter would probably fit the term out there.

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 respect Herzog and like how he goes in strange directions, but with that sometimes he wanders down the wrong path, or maybe wrong isn't the word. He sometimes wanders down a boring path. Somehow Herzog got his hands on some space footage and some antarctic underwater footage and thought he could compose that into a sci fi movie.

This is of course a visually distinctive journey and a must for all die hard Herzog fans, but I felt it was a bit too strange and far out. Brad Dourif plays an alien on earth who says he sucks at what he does or something along those lines, which is kind of funny.

Maybe you have to be in the right atmosphere to enjoy this journey, but if you are only going to see one Herzog film, don't make it this one.

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.

...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...