Platypuschow Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World is a documentary by famed documentary film maker Werner Herzog. The guy has no niche, no area of expertise and has made films on everything from bears to volcanos to criminals and certainly has his way of doing things.This is a documentary on how the internet has shaped the modern world but it's flaw is it's lack of direction and instead bounces from one aspect of this digital world to the next rather randomly.It covers artificial intelligence and robots, it tells the origins of the internet, it touches upon the darkside of the net and gaming addictions and to those who insist on living without it.Though there are certainly some interesting parts the whole thing feels detrived and purposeless. I'd have rather seen a documentary that touches on one single aspect of a subject as broad as this.Watchable but not one of his best works and a tad chaotic for my liking.The Good: Well made Some very interesting moments The Bad: Herzog is a truly awful interviewer Documentary has no direction Things I learnt from this movie: If you own a Porche you make sure everyone knows, you don't acknowledge that you have a car.......it's a porche The internet is literally the anti-Christ

Simply Put Whilst this documentary tackles a very meaty subject (technology and its effects on humans, the world and the universe), it unfortunately is very dry in its delivery and quite limited in its effectiveness.I think this is for 2 main reasons - firstly, Herzog mainly interviews people who are very tech-savvy, tech-driven people who are completely and totally immersed in their chosen field. As such, they talk very enthusiastically in very technical terms about very dry topics. Imagine asking a Maths Fan Club to tell you all about what their favourite prime number is and why and then filming it....DRY, BORING & INDECIPHERABLE for those of us not on the same page, right?! I feel like a lot of the film was like that! I learned a couple of interesting facts from these people, but not enough to sustain a whole film's worth of interest. The more 'human' element, where Herzog talks to people about the effect technology has had upon them, is far more interesting - but there is much less of that in the film than the technical stuff. I think he was trying to link the 2 together - i.e. here is what the intent was/is, but this is actually what has happened/will happen - but he doesn't pull it off.This brings me to my second point - Herzog has picked a really expansive subject, and as such, cannot possibly give each element the attention it needs or deserves. He should have just stuck with, say, the effects of the internet, or the looming figure of artificial intelligence. There is not enough time and space in one film to link all aspects together efficiently.So, if you are a very logical, tech-savvy person, who enjoys technically informing documentaries, you may really like this. If like me, you're more into the psychological/emotional angles, you likely won't.

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.

Barry Peet Yes, summed up, I would say 'unworthy'. From both the perspective of the Internet: way too complex, large and important to be portrayed the way it is in this 'documentary'.And from the perspective of the maker. Werner Herzog can make very nice films, were his style and humor is a real benefit. This is just not one of them. It seems to be due to a total lack of knowledge and feeling with the subject.Watching this movie feels like someone picked a very at random words and then tried to make a movie on The Internet around it. Monks.. Mars.. Robots.. Dreams.. Radiation.. Stars.. and this just continues.If the purpose of this movie was to let Mr Herzog have a laugh, I'm sure he succeeded. But pretending it to show the history of The Internet, and it's social impact.. No way!Shame on you Werner!