jessica-keener It's just really damn good. Lava is like water but red and hot, really hot, like really really hot

Roger Thornhill Be under no illusion, this is not a volcano documentary. Whatever it is, is not even very good. You will learn almost nothing about volcanoes. There's some 'volcano porn' cinematography but it is dwarfed by a meandering, aimless succession of locations and people without any regard for any kind of unity of time and place, topped by Herzog's monotone narration and grating German accent throughout. It's possibly the worst voice over I've ever heard, and exists only because the director has cast himself in his own film.Confusingly, an eminent British volcanologist takes on the role of both interviewee and interviewer at times, and combined with Herzog's over-bearing vocal presence, you are never quite sure who's in charge of this enterprise. It may be that was an artistic/directorial decision, but it sure when right over my head in that case, and felt to me more like it came out of a lack of planning and focus on part of the director.There is an anthropological dimension to the documentary, looking at the people who live with the volcanoes, but it is conducted in a deeply unsatisfying way. We're treated to long, interminable minutes of a village chief's ridiculous and childish superstitions ("The volcano talks to me.. but I cannot say, it's a secret....the volcano is annoyed because foreigners come here...").This dull and prolonged pseudo-anthropological exercise in filming village people do their incomprehensible volcano-related rituals is followed by various other uninteresting bits until the documentary takes us to North Korea, where Herzog insults your intelligence with fury by suggesting - shock horror - that North Koreans are brainwashed into blind patriotism and admiration for their leader, and - wait for it - that they engage in propaganda! His apparent surprise is such that the film turns into a tired repetition of the same old news about North Korea, and the volcano that brought him there is pretty much ignored.In summary, it's not a good volcano film - you don't see that much, and learn next to nothing. It's not a good documentary about people either. Herzog and his British buddy are rather inept at talking to people and drawing out their interesting side in a way that documentaries demand. What's left is Herzog's ego and unpleasant voice.

tapio_hietamaki The first, but definitely not the last, documentary by Werner Herzog that I've seen, 'Into the Inferno' is a movie about volcanoes and the attitudes and beliefs people have toward them.For a documentary, the film isn't particularly informative. It's an art film, like you'd expect from Herzog. Most of all, it includes mesmerizingly beautiful footage of volcanoes. The sights feel otherworldly, chthonic, dreamlike: the red blood of the earth that flows from unfathomable depths.We are introduced to the volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer that Herzog met in Antarctica working on another documentary film of his. Together the two men traverse Indonesia, Africa, Iceland and even North Korea looking at volcanoes and interviewing people who live in their vicinity. The elements of science and religion are constantly intertwining. In addition to learning about prehistoric eruptions and various seismographic trinkets, we get introduced to cargo cults, ancestral spirits, doomsday prophecies and political cults of personality.Very interesting and thoughtful film. There are some very unexpected detours in the narrative: Herzog takes us where opportunity presents itself, not always focusing on the volcano theme but instead looking at paleonthology or the effects of propaganda on the human psyche.

davidjtalbot Werner Herzog is nothing if not an obsessive film maker. This obsession leads to stark and beautiful sights captured through his camera, which serve more of a philosophical aesthetic than any true narrative. I went into this expecting a documentary about the history of volcanoes, perhaps a narrative on their cultural considerations. Instead what I got was a personal rumination on the discompassionate, violent nature of volcanoes, put into relief by the helpless, delusional stories primitive communities create about them.Herzog superimposes his trademark "Man as nothing but subject to the indifferent forces of nature" theme subtlety throughout the film, until the end it comes forward in full, with nothing short of an apocalyptic speculation about volcanoes annihilating the planet in synchronized eruption....K.I respect Herzog's view that man is a futile, helpless, and deluded organism at the mercy of the objective and inconsiderate forces of nature, but that is nothing more than a reflection of his personal view on humanity and nature. It is not inspiring, it is not particularly original, but it is vastly dark. To that I simply say, I prefer to see the world as something of beauty, something from which we are inextricably linked, that supports us, and provides this incredible experience called human life. I am thankful for the sometimes violent beauty of nature. Herzog does a good job of disguising his nihilism beneath gorgeous shots, imagery, and commentary, and slowly leaks it in as time ticks by. It's like a good magic trick, that if pulled off effectively might just leave the viewer feeling somewhat nihilistic at the end of the movie too. Nice try Werner, not this time.