You know how when you’re wanting to go to the movie theater and you look up all the films that are showing and there are alway at least three that you’ve never heard of, let alone have any interest in seeing? Well, good news! I’ve seen those movies. I spend most of my theater experiences in art house theaters watching those movies that you’ve never heard of and then never watch. Yeah, I’m that hipster asshole. My goal with this is to spread information out about these films, that way you can decide one of the following. “That actually sounds pretty cool! I want to see that now!” or “Man, I’m glad I decided to go see the new superhero movie!”. So without further ado, here is my article and review of Into the Inferno.
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Werner Herzog is a great filmmaker. He has created a lot of great films in his lifetime. He is a very influential figure in the cinematic world. He makes a lot of films, more than the standard director. He can switch back and forth between a narrative fiction film and a documentary film very easily, which is a very difficult thing to do as a director. That being said, I just don’t get it. Almost none of his films connect with me. I know that people love this man, and I wish I did too. But there is just something about his filmography that I can’t wrap my head around. So when I critique this film, keep that in mind. If you are the kind of person that will watch a Herzog film no problem, then that’s great. But my god was this film a chore for me.
Into the Inferno follows volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer as he and Werner Herzog travel around the globe analyzing volcanos and the surrounding area of the volcano. It essentially becomes Clive and Werner traveling around the world to different places, looking at the volcanoes, talking to the people in the surrounding area about the volcano, going “wow that is a great volcano”, then moving on to the next volcano. The film is great for information if that is what you are going for. I relate this film to something you would see on the Discovery Channel or the National Geographic Channel. So if that is what you want this will be great. But it just never captured me.
This is a beautifully shot film, I will say that much. The actual footage of the volcanoes in the film are extremely beautiful. And it is something that I haven’t seen before. I don’t have much context to this film and the filmmaking process but since this is something I haven’t seen before it wouldn’t be shocking if it came out that this was a difficult shoot, or even they invented some kind of new method of filming for it or something. So if you want some extraordinary filmmaking with the volcanoes, check this film out.
There really isn’t anything wrong with the film. It isn’t like it is poorly made like I said earlier, it is a very well shot film. The subjects are all interesting, except for maybe Clive but at the same time I’m not into volcanoes so I can’t really complain. I watched this film because I would like to see more Herzog films and with this being his most recent release it would be good. But there really isn’t a story. It is just “Look at this volcano!” then “Look at this volcano!”. The only major flaw I can find with the film is that it gets pretty repetitive. Maybe that is why I was so bored. Maybe it’s because I really don’t care about volcanoes.
This review is pretty pointless.
I’m realizing as I write this that this is a pretty stupid review because I have absolutely no opinion on this film. I think it’s boring and repetitive. But since I wasted an entire page repeating this, I might as well review something in great detail. Hell, this will be one of the last reviews of the year so I might as well give you something interesting to read about.
So I decided that I’m going to write about the live action Scooby-Doo movie from 2002. This is also a film that recently entered my top ten films of all time. Why? Because it’s incredible. That’s why. Sure the studio meddled and messed with a bit of the writing, so the film wasn’t an R-rated comedy completely making fun of Scooby-Doo. But is that really what we need in a film? Do you really want to see a film mocking one of the greatest cartoons of all time? No. You think you do because you’re edgy and think you’re tough. There is a lot of subtlety in this film where you find that original drive to mock and or parody the original cartoon. While also being a lot that I loved when I was a child and saw the film in theaters. I loved this film when it was in theaters. And I love it now for completely different reasons. And if you think this film is stupid then you don’t understand pure art.
Anyway. I don’t recommend Into the Inferno. I one-hundred percent think you should give Scooby-Doo a second chance. Because it’s Christmas and Scooby needs your help.