Naqoyqatsi

Rating:
Summary: This is BAD!......really, really BAD.
Review: First off - Kooyanatsqi is one of my all time favorite movies.
Recently, tired of the constant dross coming out of Hollywood I statred watching "older" movies, and that's when I disvoered it. Like many "better" older movies, the difference between Koyaanatsqi and Naqoyqatsi lies in the creative process. In the former - a project lovingly crafted over time by true artists, in the latter, a rush job done on computers with little real thought, and totally detached from the audience. I mean the first two in the trilogy took years to make - this one I could've done on my Apple in an afternoon. I can imagine the creative meeting at Spago - a bunch of tired fat old Hollywood players taking this fantastic body of work, hiring a bunch of computer animation dudes - giving them a 'we need it by Friday" timeline and a hundred grand - and there you go. Like other reviewers, my objection is not solely based on the use of digital media - simply the use of tired, mid-90's digital media - it's like a cross between microsoft clip art and a Yanni video (not that I've ever seen one) And the music - listen I'm sure Yo-Yo Ma is very good at what he does - but his presence here makes the music way too busy, and detracts from Philip Glass's excellent composition style. My main objection with this is not the wasted money - but the cynical, talentless mess that this has made of an otherwise perfect series. I will be leaving Naqoyqatsi on the stoop of my brownstone for the homeless people to sell for a buck - and that's a buck more than it's worth. Hollywood should move to New York where the creative process still has some integrity. OK, I'm done.

Rating:
Summary: excellent brain nutrient
Review: Be weary of anyone who can't sit through this mind-opening movie, it subconsciously says alot about their ignorance... I'm not saying everyone has to love it but how can you not be interested in something so fresh and different. Real Art in entertainment is hard to find, don't let it pass you by. The images are dazzling and leave the viewer to interpret in their own way. In the spirit of the qatsi trilogy Philip Glass has once again outdone himself, this time also receiving support from the talented YO-YO-MA. This would be a 5 star review but since I know Godfrey has done and could do better I gave it 4

Rating:
Summary: A disappointing end to a great trilogy
Review: For anyone looking for a fitting conclusion to the trilogy that began with the exciting Koyaanisqaatsi and then continued with the gorgeous Powaqatsi, this film is a bit of a disappointment. Instead of the beautiful cinematography of the first two films, this film relies on animation and special visual effects. If there is a single purely "in camera" shot, I didn't see it. It is very tiresome to see scenes so distorted by visual trickery that they are entirely disassociated from the real world. The Phillip Glass music sounds like someone trying to sound like Phillip Glass. The jumbled and distorted images eventually grow monotonous and it felt like a very long film for being only 90 minutes.

The best thing about the DVD is the interview with Glass and Reggio who you rarely get to hear speak about the trilogy. I highly recommend the first two films, but the third one is best watched while doing the dishes or folding your laundry.


Rating:
Summary: Psychonatigated blissfulness of the holly allah [gati]
Review: A Journey for the minds eye, portal to the unknow. This shows you nothing and everything. Projecteed in a way to let you interpret the data in your own way. To view in as they say [eye candy] A psychodelic exploration of our world as a whole, a raw naked experience of our existence and fetish love. Or as a vissual interpretation of the spectrum of our world and what we do to it and or create. I do not believe in any way that watching all three of the films you are missing much that is out their in terms of what everything is catogorized in all of our american lives. Corperate greed, lusk, ideals, growth, poverty, raw, over stimulization, love beauty, hate, audio and visual awakenness, To really show us who we are and what we saposidelly need. The film is pressented in an all visual scences, some things we can just see to fully comprehend, some things are better unspoken. If you get tired of the current sound track change it feel free to breath new life into it everytime you watch it, our world changes why shouldnt this. Jah Wobbles solaris works very well, Or any Bill Laswells records. This Is by far the most raw psyconavigated piece of work ive ever come in contact with. Be awaken by this reality dream of beauty and dismay. Dont be afraid the future is hear now.

Rating:
Summary: Effective
Review: Reggio has been lambasted to no end regarding this film, with most arguments against it more or less in opposition to his use of digital tools and technology in the creation of the visuals, the necessary bi-products of a digital, commodified age, a dehumanising practise which he is ostensibly critiquing. That criticism notwithstanding, the unending parade of seemingly arbitrary and/or obvious visual signs which are thrust at the viewer without much differentiation or care seems to frustrate viewers of Reggio's "art". I think that it is quite a stroke of genius to do this; in this film the form closely matches the content. It reflects the dreary, non-individualised, cyber/hyper consumer world very well, a world where the arbitrary image of a giraffe/zebra (on, say, a nature programme) can be set alongside an ad for coca-cola. There is no necessary link between the two, but we, as unassuming consumers of signs and imagery, do not notice this problem, it has become `natural'. I believe that the imagery has been modified, warped (etc) to scare us into a realisation of how un-natural many of the ways we consume and see the world are. The critique proffered here has to be looked for. It is all on the surface. There is, necessarily, no depth to the film and its imagery.

Rating:
Summary: Last Thoughts on a Thirty Year Long Polemical Effort
Review: Director Godfrey Reggio and Composer Philip Glass, in 1975, began work on a trilogy of films, that collectively take on as their dominant theme, the disintegration and fragmentation of modern civilized life. The trilogy begins with 1982's "Koyaanisqatsi", which deals with the "way of life" of the peoples of the northern hemisphere. 1988's "Powaqqatsi" speaks of the influence of that way of life on the more primitive peoples of the Southern Hemisphere. This 2002 film, "Naqoyqatsi", both explores and attempts to predict, what life will be like in the globalized world of the future.

All three films form an abstract wordless narrative structure, achieved solely through the use of traditional or digital cinematography, accompanied by a musical soundtrack from composer Philip Glass. The titles of these films come from Hopi Indian philosophies, yet the vision of the films is not that of the Hopi peoples, but primarily that of director Godfrey Reggio, who left a Christian monastic life during his teenage years in order to better engage with the world.

It is difficult to determine what influence that monastic upbringing had on Reggio's vision, however. In Christian apocalyptic literature, such as in "The Book of Revelations", a story is constructed "in which the secrets of the heavenly world or of the world to come are revealed by angelic mediation within a narrative framework". "Naqoyqatsi" is not properly a part of that tradition, though it's dominant theme still seems to be the disorder of a world which is rapidly approaching a tragic end.

Extreems of love and despair both achieve their psychological power in a person's mind by denying contradictory evidence of their opposite. Extreems of love deny any quality of flaw in the beloved, while extreems of despair deny any possibility of a future communion with goodness. Clearly, the theme of "Naqoyqatsi" is a kind of "totalism" of despair, which utterly denies any of the fragile joys we may experience.

The images we see in the film are all true, yet a viewer is compelled to make some sense of their own personal journey within this contemporary life. Indeed, one feels obligated to seek a meaning beyond the "Naqoyqatsi" message. Ultimately, that is why this reviewer does not find Reggio's vision to be personally satisfying, even though these films are an astonishing artistic success. Within the qatsi world view, Reggio leaves the audience with little hope of finding eventual solace.

Rating:
Summary: AMAZING FILM
Review: WOW!! I'm surprised that a lot of you guys don't get it. It is far more in depth than the other two qatsi's. THe FILM IS NOT STRICTLY ABOUT WAR WITH OTHER COUINTRIES, YOU KNOW, THE TRADITIONAL SENSE OF WHAT WAR IS. Instead it shows the many different things that people fight wars with...environment, religion, social acceptance, technology, science, some political wars, etc. Furthermore it encompasses all of the things that fuel these wars, i.e. self gratification, convenience, patriotism, money/wealth, and all around pleasure. I am not knocking you who don't get it, but watch the movie with these things in mind and you may enjoy it more. I actually enjoy it more every time i watch it. Some of the best footage of all the qatsi's is in this film. The opening scene is amazing of the tower of babbal, if you don't know what it is or what its purpose in the movie is, think about it and you'll realize how perfect it is. AMAZING FILM!!! A+++++

Rating:
Summary: an astonishing masterwork
Review: Prepare to be thrown out of your seat.
Perhaps it took what we now think of as the perfection of digitalization to fully realize this film, as there was quite a delay between this, the end of the Qatsi trilogy, and the great Powaqqatsi.
But what a fine reward! Here we are treated to a non-stop cosmic roller coaster connecting the increasing de-humanization of our daily world with the ever exploding advance of the Machines and how they rule our lives. And how we are so lazy that we allow them to do it. Here, I, believe is the "war" that is the Naqoy, not armies nor the madness of Man.
In my experience, no other director is so expertly adept at this unique style of juxtapositional montage. You will know what I mean when a smiling human face intantly and seamlessly transforms into a galactic cloud, or the blast of a thermonuclear weapon. Or the flight of bombs suddenly merged into the exercise of giraffes.
But, unfortunately, Godfrey Reggio's films are not for everyone. This stuff is 'art gratia artis'; art for art's sake.
His films, few and far between, are subtle in their message, even though the director claims that there really is no message to be implied.
But none of those arguments matter. The imagery is what matters, and it is unparalled by any other known director, living or dead.
If you have read this, then you already know about "Baraka". Another brilliant film in the same vent as the Qatsi series, although a little more human, and intensely spiritual. But differently astonishing in its own right.
So get the movie, or all of them, prepare yourself for a different, non-linear film experience with NO INTERRUPTIONS!!!!