Catherine Wheatley finds Mystery and muddle in South Pole doc

“The bleak, barren setting yields some striking imagery, which would be surprising from any other director but is typical of Herzog’s ability to cast the most innocuous of objects in a reverential light. The twin motifs of religion and science fiction frame the landscape: an underground cavern becomes a cathedral, a muddy research station a moon base; microscopic plankton take on the proportions of grotesque alien beings; invisible neutron streams are the holy spirit ‘through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory’ . . . And yet for all that Encounters is beautiful, frightening and timely, it’s a shamefully superficial film. These fantastic images and insights never resolve into anything greater than the sum of their parts. On the one hand, this affords the spectator a freedom of interpretation arguably unprecedented in Herzog’s oeuvre. But on the other it smacks of complacency. Could this really be the same diretor who once hauled a steamship over a mountain?”

Sight & Sound, May 2009