50
At times playful and inventive, at others simplistic and silly. Ultimately, Werner Herzog's free-form, idiosyncratic devolution of the documentary is beautiful but dull.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
80
Not a major Herzog work or one that will draw a large audience, but a must-see for those who suspect (as I do) that he's one of the greatest talents now working in this medium.
63
New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman
A meandering, amusing trifle, Werner Herzog's latest film is as cheekily flaky as his recent "Grizzly Man" was sharply down-to-earth.
75
TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh
Werner Herzog's self-proclaimed "science-fiction fantasy" is a meticulously constructed fiction made from a combination of real-life footage repurposed in ways a conventional documentarian couldn't imagine.
80
The New York Times by Manohla Dargis
There is pleasure in such useless beauty, of course, and pleasure too in drifting with the jellyfish amid the wild blue yonder of a great filmmaker’s imagination.
67
The Wild Blue Yonder has a small message to deliver about the importance of ecological conservation, but mostly, it's an excuse to cut together mesmerizing undersea and outer-space photography while a hypnotic soundtrack drones on.
80
The Hollywood Reporter by Ray Bennett
Herzog's strangely beautiful film has marvelous music and hypnotic imagery. A documentary for stoners and people who are that way naturally, it is a cautionary tale for wishful thinkers.
50
Wavers between (sometimes) brilliant and (mostly) boring. But it would be wrong to call it a failure.