Chronos

Rating:
Summary: It's ok
Review: Chronos is alright some of the scenes are nice but if I were you i'd save my money and buy somthing else.

Rating:
Summary: Great but very short
Review: Great film but very short compared to Baraka. Otherwise, an awesome film. It was a 4 star film but I deducted one star for brevity.

Rating:
Summary: Worth a look....
Review: I had visions of Koyaanisqatsi when I heard about this DVD, and I've always loved time-lapse photography, so this seemed like a wonderful find. Upon seeing it, though, I found it was not what I was expecting.

The photography is quite beautiful, but much of the film is of landscapes or ancient monuments having the sunlight change as it moves in the sky. Pretty, but it doesn't show me the world from a time perspective that seems unusual or foreign. The scenes of people and cities were much more fascinating, I thought (although my favorite scene is of the tide rushing in around the French monastery). You can see the pulse of a city or the frenetic motion of people that you simply can't discern at normal speed.

This is probably a great movie in its original IMAX format, where the pretty scenery and cockpit-eye-view of navigating canyons would be very impressive, but on the small screen, it was not as engaging as I had hoped.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty, but not engrossing
Review: I had visions of Koyaanisqatsi when I heard about this DVD, and I've always loved time-lapse photography, so this seemed like a wonderful find. Upon seeing it, though, I found it was not what I was expecting.

The photography is quite beautiful, but much of the film is of landscapes or ancient monuments having the sunlight change as it moves in the sky. Pretty, but it doesn't show me the world from a time perspective that seems unusual or foreign. The scenes of people and cities were much more fascinating, I thought (although my favorite scene is of the tide rushing in around the French monastery). You can see the pulse of a city or the frenetic motion of people that you simply can't discern at normal speed.

This is probably a great movie in its original IMAX format, where the pretty scenery and cockpit-eye-view of navigating canyons would be very impressive, but on the small screen, it was not as engaging as I had hoped.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!!
Review: I have senn this film many times at the local IMAX theater. It is perhaps the best cinematography ever done. The time laspse done my Ron Fricke is amazing. Michael Stearns provides a beautiful soundtrack to accompany this film. I have all of Stearns' work. If you like this film then I highly suggest "Baraka" by Ron Fricke and Michael Stearns.

Rating:
Summary: Crossover to DVD a disappointment
Review: I loved the movie when I saw it at the local IMAX theater and wanted more of the same. Given that there's basically no dialogue in the move, it would stand to reason that THE SOUNDTRACK IS KIND OF IMPORTANT. Let's just say the stereo encoding really left something to be desired. Also, the age of the film shows.

Rating:
Summary: Worth a look....
Review: I must preface this by saying that I purchased Baraka before finding Chronos. Obviously they are not intended to be identical efforts, and it would appear that Fricke/Stearns put a lot more work into Baraka. That said, Chronos is a fascinating piece, which I'm sure was stunning in an IMAX theater. I was a bit disappointed with the film quality, there was a noticeable amount of dust, hair, etc. on the film and the image was definitely not what one would expect from a film shot in 70mm. I'd pay twice the price for a remastered version with the original camera's aspect ratio (I suspect it was not 1.33:1, as this DVD represents it).

I hate to compare this film to Baraka, but once you've seen both films, it's hard not to. Although I think Baraka is a bigger and better film, Chronos definitely has its strengths. I think Ron Fricke was certainly more expressive with different types of editing, time-lapse and camera exposure in Chronos. But then again, this all plays into the theme of the film: time.

Rating:
Summary: Lacking Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound
Review: I saw this movie probably 10 times at the Los Angeles IMAX when it debuted. The sound, if I recall correctly, was in surround. I'm disappointed this disk was in stereo. I would be willing to pay up to 3x more for the 5.1 surround. Unapix are you listening?

Rating:
Summary: Lacking Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound
Review: I saw this movie probably 10 times at the Los Angeles IMAX when it debuted. The sound, if I recall correctly, was in surround. I'm disappointed this disk was in stereo. I would be willing to pay up to 3x more for the 5.1 surround. Unapix are you listening?

Rating:
Summary: Intense, abstract filmmaking
Review: I watch "Chronos" on a fairly regular basis. Purely a concept film (no dialogue, characters, plot, etc.), the deft editing, combined with one of Michael Stearns' most powerful musical efforts, results in an almost psychedelic experience. The film is an engaging experiment in the documentation of and toying with the passage of time, both in the historical sense (progression from "barbarism" to civilisation) and in the chronological sense, alternately slowing down and speeding up the sequences to varying degrees. The final "scene" (as it were) is magnificent, bringing the acceleration of time to its logical conclusion. Purely an audio-visual experience, it is best seen on as large a screen as one can afford and with an equally powerful sound system.