Fireball: visitors from darker worlds

Fireball: visitors from darker worlds ()

Directorsç Werner Herzog, Clive Oppenheimer

Those familiar with Herzog’s documentaries will know what to expect: somebody may call them ‘indulgent mental masturbation’, others deep and philosophical reflections… I’ve always been more towards the first lot of people, though I do recognise at times there are some fantastic moments. The same goes with this one. In among the various detour and pointless jokes, some of this is undoubtedly fascinating. I know that if at work I came up with a documentary so unfocused and meandering like this one I would probably get my ass fired. But because it’s Herzog, all is forgiven (very unfair, but that’s how is is): lines like “I will not bore you with the details of what’s he said…” interrupting an interview with an expert or “I couldn’t resist interrupting the interview…” are just some of the most pointless flourishes from Herzog and come across pretentious and uninteresting. All we want to see is gorgeous shots of meteors, of the sky and listen to the voices of the experts. But the film doesn’t have too much of that, so it’s even interspersed with clips from other movies including deep impact to make it more visual.Also the film seems to belong less and less to him as most of it is given to interviews and led by Oppenheimer, so when his deadpan growls… erm I mean voiceover, comes in, at times it feels like it belongs to a different film… and one that’s really not as good as the rest and not as interesting as the subject it’s trying to cover. In the end there was just not enough to hold my attention.

On Apple+