Encounters at the End of the World (2007)

A Werner Herzog film is fascinating regardless of the subject and Encounters is no exception. Featuring great shots of Antarctica, much like every Herzog film this one touches you in ways you cannot really express. (Great Herzog film)

Encounters at the End of the World is a powerful, haunting and inspiring documentary from the master himself, Werner Herzog. At this point it's really just amusing that either Herzog's fictional feature or documentaries haven't been awarded with an Oscar since in my opinion all of his documentaries are Oscar worthy.Encounters at the End of the World is the only Herzog documentary to even be nominated.The movie is essentially a look into Antarctica stringed together with a bunch of interviews of the various people Herzog meets on his journey. All of them have something truly interesting to say and Herzog himself provides once again his narration for the documentary.Encounters at the End of the World has a scene which is perhaps the most powerful image I've ever seen on film. A lonely, deranged penguin heading towards the mountains alone, towards a certain death.

First off, I'd like to say that I am not any sort of movie buff or amateur critic trying to drive traffic to my hipster blog. I'm just a regular guy that really enjoyed this film and wanted to leave my .02 I do watch a lot of movies. I watch them as most of the general public does, for entertainment. Never have I enjoyed watching a documentary as much as I did when I watched Encounters at the End of the World. Before watching this, the word Documentary transported me back to Middle/High school, where we watched horribly boring crap on a reel to reel projector.I read through a bunch of the 1-3 star ratings because I was curious why people didn't like this film. Most of them complained about the lack of "scientific data" or that it "wandered around aimlessly" or focused too much on the residents and how they went about their lives. Amazingly enough those are the exact reasons why I loved this film. I wasn't overwhelmed with boring scientific stuff - it had just enough. Werner did a great job of showing a little bit of a lot of things, all engaging and entertaining. Lastly, the people he interacted with were great, I felt like each one of them were telling their story just to me.Opposite of some reviews, I enjoy Werner's narrations very much. I find it soothing and enjoyable.Watch this film and enjoy it for what it is, not for what the buffs want it to be.

Werner Herzog's narration with improper enunciation is overshadowed by the land everyone dreams of visiting in their lifetime. A treat to lovers of nature and those who are ardent fans of 'Discovery'. A lovely documentary set in the land of ubiquitous icebergs and moaning seals.The movie takes you to the least inhabited continent on this planet. A land that has barely any vegetation and verdant fields but has million of hectares of nothing but ice. The continent was believed to be static by the early explorers but observations and constant research has shown the continent is a cluster of several hundreds of thousands of icebergs which are ready to move north at will.Herzog interviews several scientists who are here on a purpose, who have been through civil wars in a totally different nation, who have been held hostage and those who have done years of research on language that is deemed to be extinct.The documentary is bolstered with the brilliant background score and the scenes shot sub-marine; under several meters thick ice lies a sea and a totally different species of marine life that could lead to several answers on the long-asked questions on the origin of life on Earth. The background score and the wonderful handling of camera could put the makers of 'Tree of Life' to shame.Herzog learns about a few disoriented penguins and has ensured the movements of the deserters are well-captured. Herzog also takes us to the only one among three volcanoes on the planet that exposes its magma lake and then to the helium balloon set into the stratosphere, a balloon that could trap neutrinos and give a radiant blue beam of light upon making with the neutrinos.