Here is a brilliant testament to the Home Theater system. A straight-to-video movie that is entirely based on its mastery of the elements of sight and sound. The beauty of this film (actually its raison d'etre, if you will) is in its cinematica. Werner Herzog employs sweeping long takes of both undersea and outer space, punctuated by (my favorite) a bleak depiction of life on the fringe of Americana, vaguely reminiscent of Stroszek.
These takes are long. Very long. Long enough to allow suitable time for the kind of contemplation it'll take to figure out where Herzog is coming from. His use of canned NASA footage clearly negates the fiction element. Brad Dourif's Alien is obviously not an alien. The film is prefaced as "A Science Fiction Fantasy," a likely play on the two genres and their intertwining histories. But really, Herzog combines aspects of both quite beautifully. Between takes of humans floating through space light years away, we have concise and logical explanations of how it will actually be possible in years to come. It's Star Wars with mathematical explanations.
Werner Herzog's legend as an image-maker is only rivaled by his prowess for recognition of appropriated images. In the end, though, Herzog isn't visiting themes far different than his usual mainstays. It's Man's Struggle Against Oblivion, only this time he's shooting for Oblivion itself. This film gives you some time to think about this stuff. Here's an interesting hypothetical: Can you think of another of his films that couldn't be renamed The Wild Blue Yonder?
I'll leave you with this, because it reminded me of it:
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