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Encounters at the End of the World
THINKFilm

Encounters at the End of the World reviews


8.3

based on 25 reviews
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based on 9 votes
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MPAA RATING: G

Starring Werner Herzog

Werner Herzog confirms his standing as poet laureate of men in extreme situations with Encounters at the End of the World. In this visually stunning exploration, Herzog travels to the Antarctic community of McMurdo Station, headquarters of the National Science Foundation and home to eleven hundred people during the austral summer (Oct-Feb). Over the course of his journey, Herzog examines human nature and Mother nature, juxtaposing breathtaking locations with the profound, surreal, and sometimes absurd experiences of the marine biologists, physicists, plumbers, and truck drivers who choose to form a society as far away from society as one can get. (THINKFilm)

GENRE(S):	Documentary
DIRECTED BY:	Werner Herzog
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: November 18, 2008 Theatrical: June 11, 2008
RUNNING TIME:	minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

A supremely cranky and lyrical feat.

100

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The stunning images aren't enough for Herzog, though. He wants us to see how these quirky researchers, in their lust to explore, are acting out a drive as primitive as nature: the need to break away from the world in order to find it.

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

It is a poem of oddness and beauty.

100

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Werner Herzog is a stranger in a strange land as soon as he gets out of bed in the morning: in this travelogue of Antarctica, his perverse curiosity and zest for the harshest extremes of nature transform what might have been a standard TV special into an idiosyncratic expression of wonder.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Like many of Mr. Herzog's movies, fiction and nonfiction, Encounters at the End of the World itself has the quality of a dream: it's at once vivid and vague, easy to grasp and somehow beyond reach.

TV Guide Ken Fox

A deranged penguin is seen racing toward his certain doom amid the crags of a mountain range. It may not be "Happy Feet," but Herzog has made a penguin movie after all.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Does Antarctica attract dreamers or create them? It's a thread that runs throughout the film.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Takes you places an ordinary documentary filmmaker might’ve gone to yet missed completely.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Through Herzog's eyes it is a desolate, strangely beautiful frozen Edenish hell where the planet, having shaken out its pockets, lets the loners, fanatics and cosmologist-crackpots fall to bottom.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

All this is as fascinating as it is humbling, even when Herzog ventures a little too far down eccentricity's back alley.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

An engaging and generous profile of the fascinating folks who have chosen to live at the end of the world.

Los Angeles Times Mark Olsen

The images captured by Herzog and cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger are dazzling all on their own, finding the disorienting psychedelia that is nature at its weirdest.

Film Threat Don R. Lewis

I also think Herzog is making a case for those crazy enough to follow their dreams, even when they take you to the end of the earth. Literally.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

It's as much fun to anticipate what he's (Herzog) going to say as it is to appreciate the snowy landscapes, belching volcanoes and mustachioed seals before his lens. And what could have been a conventional travelogue becomes a sort of ruminative odyssey of the mind.

San Francisco Chronicle Walter Addiego

An enjoyable example of this extraordinary director's documentary work.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

A sort of distracted, freewheeling form of inquiry and observation drives Encounters At The End Of The World, a loosely constructed documentary that seems to have been made on a whim.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

Encounters may lack the power of, say, the Herzog doc "Grizzly Man," because it has no bigger-than-life character at its nexus, but it does confirm the filmmaker as an iconoclastic master.

Slate Dana Stevens

It's a loosely bound collection of miscellany filmed at the McMurdo Station, a 1,000-person settlement of researchers in Antarctica, during the five-month "austral summer" of round-the-clock sunlight. Herzog was sent to Antarctica by the National Science Foundation with carte blanche to make whatever movie he wanted--all he could tell them for sure was that it wouldn't involve penguins.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Midway through, an eerier theme creeps in, all the more powerful for Herzog's lack of insistence. By the "end of the world" he means the end of the world.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

Retains considerable entertainment value on the strength of Herzog's never-dull, very personal narrating style.

Variety Scott Foundas

Resultant picture -- one of Herzog's best and most purely enjoyable -- may lack the built-in curio factor of "Grizzly Man."

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Perhaps because Herzog is approaching old-master status, Encounters at the End of the World skews toward the observational. As in "Grizzly Man," his 2005 portrait of a deranged bear lover, Herzog seems at least as fascinated with other people's obsessions as his own.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

It's Herzog-light, in a way -- more travelogue than dissection. But it's filled with small riches, not least of which is the director's amazing narration. Can't you just imagine him reading "Green Eggs and Ham"?

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

You get the impression that Herzog believes wholeheartedly the planet will be better off without us. Nosferatu that we have proven ourselves to be, he may be right.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Creating a hypnotically digressive travelogue, Herzog wanders from soul to soul, asking deceptively mild questions to potent effect.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.3 (out of 10) based on 9 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Hyper S gave it a5:
A documentary of sorts has two goals in my view: 1) Either entertain the audience. 2) Or spark a sense of curiosity and imagination in the audience and educate them along the way. This film failed to do both. The film was about Antarctica, but you could have renamed it to "Alaska" or "Canada" or even "Colorado" and no one would have known the difference. Heck take a camera into a random apartment complex and interview the tenants and you'd probably get a more entertaining film. The film focused more on the more-often-than-not lackluster researchers on the continent instead of showing the audience the aura of Antarctica. Where are the exotic creatures? Inspiring underwater sequences [all but one in the film]? What no cool ice glacier canyons or anything? We got a few seconds of some Penguins [snore], a couple of starfish [snore], one clam [snore], and one jellyfish [snore]. Oh, but we got to watch them sexually assault a family of seals! I'm a fan of documentaries, but this one has no theme... no point... just random bits glued together and the pace was too slow just waiting... hoping... for anything to peek one's curiosity. I became so bored I began envisioning the narrator as Arnold Schwarzenegger just to pass the time. Save the time and just flip on the Discovery channel and watch Planet Earth or something. In 5 minutes you'll get more than this film has to offer in 1hr 40 mins.

Jay H. gave it a7:
6.5/10. Frequently fascination, occasionally slow moving and boring. It is a very informative documentary with some arresting images and it is well researched. Good narration.

Syd O gave it a10:
Truly and exceptional documentary. Herzog steps beyond the "penguin" side of Antarctica to show the truly mysterious and other worldly goings on of the continent and it's imported inhabitants. His dry humor never lets the film get to caught up in itself. It really is a delight to see.

Doug N. gave it a9:
Werner Herzog doing his usual thing. Much better than the penguin movie last year. He explores the usual off beat characters, plus the beautiful landscape. Excellent.

J S. gave it a10:
Antarctica is as unusual as Herzog's film. Not a drama, yet it is dramatic, neither is it a travelogue or a documentary, though it easily covers all that. The film is a new catagory: metafilm. I just made it up, but it fits. Herzog's film delivers a visceral connect with our place, this blue ball we live on, rolling through an alien sea of darkness we know little about. It's almost as if the world is split into those who have seen it, those who have lived in Antarctica and met realities masked back home on the mall, and those who have not seen it. Such mystery is the grandeur of great filmmakers.

Newland A. gave it a7:
The most interesting part of the film is the collection of odd ducks that populate the South Pole. I could have used more of them and less of the penguins. Good but a bit long.

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Encounters at the End of the World THINKFilm

Encounters at the End of the World
THINKFilm