In den Tiefen des Infernos (2016)

In den Tiefen des Infernos: Directed by Werner Herzog. With Werner Herzog, Clive Oppenheimer, Maurice Krafft, Kampiro Kayrento. An exploration of active volcanoes around the world.

“Into the Inferno (2016) u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003e*** (out of 4) u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWerner Herzog narrates and directs this documentary, which takes a look at various volcanoes throughout the world.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI should probably start off by saying Herzog is one of my favorite filmmakers and he might be my favorite documentary filmmaker. INTO THE INFERNO was a rather interesting idea but Iu0026#39;m not quite sure how well the end product turned out. If youu0026#39;re expecting a straight documentary from the maverick filmmaker then Iu0026#39;m going to guess that youu0026#39;re unfamiliar with his work. Heu0026#39;s created some true masterpieces but none of them play like youu0026#39;d expect them to.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThatu0026#39;s certainly true for this picture, which makes you believe that itu0026#39;s about volcanoes but you soon realize that the director is up to his bag of tricks and delivers more but Iu0026#39;ll get into that in a bit. As far as the volcano stuff goes, itu0026#39;s extremely interesting to say the least. Weu0026#39;re pretty much given a tour of the globe as we see various volcanoes as well as get to learn about their history and get to hear some stories about previous explosions. All of this stuff is brilliantly captured as the cinematography is downright terrific and the visual images of the lave are so beautiful that I could have easily watched them for hours.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWith that said, the film is also about various thoughts on life and other issues. I freely admit that I didnu0026#39;t think this segment of the film worked and sadly thereu0026#39;s a lot of this stuff and I think it really brought the film down. The sequences in North Korea are a prime example as we get to hear stories of how the people there are basically hostages to their leader. What does this stuff have to do with volcanoes? All of it really seems like it should have been left for a different documentary but, as I said, Herzog likes to mix things up but I just donu0026#39;t think it was a success here.”