Steineded How sad is this?

GazerRise Fantastic!

ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

tomgillespie2002 With Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World, director Werner Herzog continues his investigations into the nature of man and our influence on the planet. Having spent most of his earlier career exploring the nature of madness and the limits of the human mind with feature films often starring Klaus Kinski, Herzog's career of late has seen him focus primarily on documentaries, and there is perhaps no other filmmaker more naturally suited to the genre. Lo and Behold tells the story of the internet, from its humble birth in a seemingly forgotten office at UCLA, to its recent explosion and rapidly widespread use throughout the world, and Herzog tackles the subject with both excited fascination and trepidation.Herzog, as usual, plays the role of the viewer, actively participating in conversation with his interviewees. He often interrupts to confirm his understanding, or to offer his own unique philosophical musings. This may come across as distracting to anyone less than familiar with the filmmaker's output, but for us Herzog loyalists, his willingness to vocalise his own feelings or provide idiosyncratic observations throughout the documentary is precisely what makes his films such a joy. His subjects appear to instantly warm to him too, allowing them to relax and open up more, with the helmer only too happy to try and catch them off guard if they veer away from the subject. As one interviewee (who is in an internet rehab facility to cure his addiction to gaming and porn) gleefully bounds across a rickety wooden bridge to greet the camera, Herzog chuckles to himself and states that no further introduction is necessary.Although the documentary does occasionally ramble, Herzog doesn't allow his own personality to eclipse the subject at hand. He concerns himself with society's increasing detachment from one another as we spend more time in front of a computer screen, and ponders whether or not the internet can dream of itself (some of the reactions to this question are priceless). The film also explores the dark side of the net, telling the story of Nikki Catsouras, the young and beautiful girl who was killed in a horrific car accident, only for pictures of her mangled body to surface on the internet. Nikki's father soon started to receive e-mails with the pictures attached, complete with mocking messages that will make your blood boil. Lo and Behold depicts our brave new world as simultaneously exciting, beautiful and utterly terrifying, reaching as far as exploring our inevitable migration into space. It offers insight into everything from robot development, internet usage and dreams, allowing Herzog to further continue his almost alien fascination with both the beauty and horror of humanity.

jungerhanson When it's bad it's still pretty good...Lo and Behold is in my opinion not one of the best efforts by Herzog. It's entertaining, it has Herzog's trademark narration which is great but somehow this film and the way Herzog approached the subject matter feel a little bit hollow. Like Herzog phoned it in.There are really funny moments like those in the trailer but more often there are moments that feel a bit cheap. For example there is a family interviewed who where victim of being harassed on the internet. People where sending them gruesome pictures of their daughter who died in a car accident. This family is still pretty much damaged by these events. Instead of delving deeper in to why people do such awful things Herzog uses the family for laughs. Maybe this was not his intention but because their story was so minimal we got to see caricatures of who these people are really like. Which feels a bit lazy. The same goes for some of the other people interviewed. Herzog does his best to get an poetic or thoughtful response but most of the time people just look at him like they don't understand the question. Of course for each of the moments there is a brilliant scene just around the corner. So it's certainly not all bad. But a lot of times certain segments don't really add up or make sense. Like for example the segment about internet on Mars. It seemed a little bit disjointed and not the most coherent story. At these moments luckily Herzog comes in with his fantastic voice and entertaining narration and saves the movie from unraveling.All in all I found this movie entertaining but not up to the standards of other Herzog movies.

Jimmy Baginski The was a small disappointment for me. Wheeling in a long succession of intellectuals and posing philosophically abstract questions at them about the implications of the Internet seems like something that could yield interesting results. In this case it leads almost nowhere. Boffins and great minds are sometimes a slave to their own sense of purpose and grandeur, always looking to imagine the most incredible eventualities and possibilities regardless of how impossible or possible they are. The people in this documentary are no doubt amazing intellects who have the native IQ to leave myself and the majority of humans dead in the water. However, it takes an intellectual to sell the idea that the Internet could gain autonomy and want to control us as a species. This is anthropomorphic projection on the grandest Earthly scale.Werner also employs a deeply foreboding soundtrack of elongated drones and celestial dread to add weight to the scientific poetry and future doomsday predictions of his interviewees. At times you could almost be drawn into this darkening of mood, but then you hear another piece of vague mumbo-jumbo and interlocutory nonsense and chuckle, remembering: it's a documentary by Werner Herzog, which sadly means you are just experiencing his default style. As well, the question "can the Internet dream of itself?" is so deeply boring and unbound by any objective framework it merely acts as a conceit from which to further ramble on the topic of non- biological sentience (something this film does rather well) and ends up in another cul-de-sac, (like all conceits do). The area of AI is seemingly in a very strange cultural place right now whereby hitherto rational people are being drawn into imagining a secular religion based around a technological cosmology. Technology is either the devil, God, or both. Either way, the great power it possesses comes from the mundane necessities of our collective lives. Mythologising is fun but really we just want the same things we've always wanted (see Maslow 'hierarchy of needs'). The internet will not change that. This strange, almost creepy substitution for God in Godless world, or power bigger than ourselves, is silly to watch coming out of intelligent people's mouths. Humans will not sleepwalk into the matrix. We will not eat the apple in the garden of Eden and reach a tipping point between our desire for technological innovation and the rise of AI overlords. This won't happen because humans won't desire it. Even if it was plausible, the road to such an event is not clearly laid out here. Lastly, moral questions about the effects of technology are useful. This poses some but doesn't go deep enough into them in order to create a basis or first principle to work from. Too much technology is one thing but please explain why. What should we keep and why? What should we discard and why?Anyway, partially thought-provoking but ultimately limited to thought experiments and conjecture about a future we can only vaguely imagine and will likely not happen.

peefyn Herzog is a character, a clown, and it's hard not to love him. The moments where he peeks out (voice only) in this film are the absolute highlights. But it's important to remember with Herzog's films that they are often more than just documentaries, and I don't believe for a second that Herzog feels any obligation to present anything factual. He's interested in concept and perspectives, but not necessarily a photo realistic portrayal of the world. This is why I would argue that Herzog's films are more essays than documentaries. As long as you remember this, you will have a good time watching this movie.Herzog approaches the internet as if he is a stranger to it, leading to some very naive questions to the highly educated people he is interviewing. They are made to answer different questions than they are used to, and this leads to different answers. You can see Elon Musk being pulled out of his element by Herzog volunteering to go to mars.Herzog has a gift of finding the peculiar in people and situations. I am a bit worried that some of the people he is interviewing is not aware of how he will present them. I'm sure Herzog does it with love, but it's still obvious that he pick moments in the interviews where they are at their most goofy.When it comes to the subject itself, and it's interesting (though disjointed) exploration of the future of the internet and the connected world, but like any essay, it doesn't really answer any questions.