Magnificently photographed, the gliding and swooping shots really draw one into the picture, and the in and out of focus playing is fascinating at times. The music fits the images very well, and theme song is quite interesting. Because of these little virtues, the film possesses power both on a visual and audio scope, however it is hard to really get into the film, due to the absence of dialogue and characters. For this reason, the images and overlaying score contain little meaning, and since there is no linear plot to follow, there is nothing to grasp the viewer in the slower sequences with less powerful music. At the end, the film quotes a few phrases in the hope of justifying what it has shown. The quotes are thought provoking, but they fail to provide justifications for more than half the images in the film. So it is not quite a masterpiece, but as a unique experimental film it is interesting, and the cinematography tricks, using time lapse and other techniques, are impressive.
Review of Koyaanisqatsi
