The concept sounds interesting, I like seeing how people around the world live, and even the frame (it all happens during October 10th 2010) makes for an interesting gimmick, one would think. I expected to come away from this viewing (on netflix) entertained and a little wiser. Perfect material for a miserable November day, one would think.
Sadly, I found the film unwatchable. I lasted 23 minutes.
During that time I was bombarded by sometimes interesting images, identified briefly by country of origin, but not clarified what I was looking at (and some of these images would have been helped by an explanation, while others - like a few blades of grass - were so banal as to feel like a waste of time). I was puzzled that while Mt Everest was given as a place/location, other images were identified by 'countries' (like Trinidad and Tobago, which is two places, isn't it?) So why was Everest not labeled either China or Nepal, or both (if it was the summit)? Then it got worse; the fast paced scenery was interspersed with awful video taken by amateurs with cell phones about stuff that wouldn't have made it into the family photo album, when such things still existed. It was beyond boring, it was poorly done, shaky, blurry, without a guiding theme or outline (go from midnight to midnight, following the sunrise, stages of human life, meals, something, anything) with the occasional interruption of factoids (flashes of white print on black background) that had little to do with anything. I know it is my personal bias, but some of these extended scenes showed children that were without any photogenic appeal.
And then there was the score... if there really were thousands of kinds of music in existence, why did I have to listen to the worst stuff, again thematically unrelated? Why did it matter that a woman was going to "listen and then attempt to play" some Irish thing? Could I not just listen to someone in Ireland making music, who already knew how to play the tune?
I expected more from this film. Based on what I saw - that either was the wrong day for a movie, or the planet is really not interesting enough for a feature. Or - and that is the choice I'm going with - this film was poorly put together.
Sadly, I found the film unwatchable. I lasted 23 minutes.
During that time I was bombarded by sometimes interesting images, identified briefly by country of origin, but not clarified what I was looking at (and some of these images would have been helped by an explanation, while others - like a few blades of grass - were so banal as to feel like a waste of time). I was puzzled that while Mt Everest was given as a place/location, other images were identified by 'countries' (like Trinidad and Tobago, which is two places, isn't it?) So why was Everest not labeled either China or Nepal, or both (if it was the summit)? Then it got worse; the fast paced scenery was interspersed with awful video taken by amateurs with cell phones about stuff that wouldn't have made it into the family photo album, when such things still existed. It was beyond boring, it was poorly done, shaky, blurry, without a guiding theme or outline (go from midnight to midnight, following the sunrise, stages of human life, meals, something, anything) with the occasional interruption of factoids (flashes of white print on black background) that had little to do with anything. I know it is my personal bias, but some of these extended scenes showed children that were without any photogenic appeal.
And then there was the score... if there really were thousands of kinds of music in existence, why did I have to listen to the worst stuff, again thematically unrelated? Why did it matter that a woman was going to "listen and then attempt to play" some Irish thing? Could I not just listen to someone in Ireland making music, who already knew how to play the tune?
I expected more from this film. Based on what I saw - that either was the wrong day for a movie, or the planet is really not interesting enough for a feature. Or - and that is the choice I'm going with - this film was poorly put together.