For the life of me I couldn't figure out what the main idea of the documentary was. First it was very, very shallow in its science and equally shallow in presenting and introducing the people who live and work in Antarctica. As others have mentioned, this film is disjointed and haphazard. I suspect that this production was made with some serious time constraints on the part of Mr. Herzog. He seems to be perceived as more of a nuisance by some of the personnel he has on film. This is probably due to the ambivalent like questions he asks. Asking questions to only provoke a response instead of from a passion of scientific curiosity or genuine interest in the personal lives of the people there will get you bad camera reaction. I felt like the people were only "cannon fodder" for his camera. One final criticism is that I found the cinematography only mildly interesting. I don't think IMAX would have helped out either.
Review of Encounters at the End of the World
