Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World

I had the misbegotten impression that this would be more than Herzog's Internet 101 Class. He brings his normal humor and insight but I'd be lying if I didn't say I knew most of this stuff already. The real movie is buried somewhere amongst the off the grid revivalists, not the Internet Addicts (mistaken here to mean Gamers). I've worn diapers for reasons way creepier than gaming.

You know Herzog spirutally nutted when he saw the Creation of Adam imagery emerge from the Asimo presentation.

Like most Herzog documentaries, it's less about Herzog finding something out and more about him making others say what he thinks. Which is part of why we love him. But like most 70-year-olds trying to understand the subject, he tends to look only at the extremes... Which, given how all-pervasive this subject is, tends to miss the point a bit. Still, there's enough Herzogisms here to make it a good watch.

Herzog takes on modern technology, finds some more characters that he seems so great at finding, but it did leave me wanting something a bit more. It's disparate, and that can work, but it doesn't have quite the satisfying arc to it that I hoped. Still, Herzog is Herzog, and I appreciate that. Him telling Elon Musk he'd take a one-way ticket to Mars, and Musk's reaction, is hilarious.

Internet dreaming, Herzog-style. Should be accompanied by a reading of Bernard Stiegler, Automatic Society, Volume One, especially chapter 3, "The Destruction of the Faculty of Dreaming".

Herzog approaches the subject of IT with his profoundly even-handed humanist insight and once again manages to bring out some fascinating and engaging moments out of his interviews. Perhaps unsurprisingly though, with a subject this huge and complex, he also seems quite lost with all the existential and moral implications in comparison to some of his other work. Captures your interest in tackling the relevant subject matter head-on but doesn't amount to much more than a thoroughly awed hmm.

It didn't hit me like I had hoped. It seems to want to tackle a lot of issues but does so in a very obvious and simple way, for the most part. There are times when it shines, when Herzog is reaching and asking for deeper content, and I love the music throughout... but it doesn't feel cohesive. With that said, some great stories are still told.

A little all-over-the-place and glossing over the "obvious" but unexamined consequences of everyone having Internet. Electromagnetic hypersensitivity and Mars habitats get a mention, but not Google Search, Internet video, or the explosion of subculture. Herzog tries to tie everything into the Internet, but this is grab-bag of present and near-future technology, not about the Internet.

The scariest film of 2016?

Its tone-shifting structure seems really disqueting, as Herzog drifts from wonder to awe to rage and to his usual world-ending, myth-making wonder before a chaotic subject. Some fractions of it really work -- like Kevin Mitnick, internet founders and other talking heads --, but most parts look undeniably unfocused -- the family who received hate mail with photos of their deceased daughter, for example, of the large sections of life on mars and robotics. Herzog seems to be having fun, though.

Herzog asks the questions that I've always wanted answered about the digital age. Fiction films and documentaries on the subject up to now get so caught up in the process and the personal lives of the players involved, but here one gets the philosophy and the ramifications for our immortal souls as our technology transforms us and our environment. Another work of genius from the master.

Part of this is just Herzog being Herzog, and that works as well as it usually does. The people are interesting, he contributes characteristically unusual - but curiously insightful - ideas, and it's never boring. I'm just not sure that an old buzzard like him - and the shaman of the cinema - had much business dealing with certain aspects of this. As an outsider's take on the internet and developing technologies it's worth checking out, but have no illusions.

A comprehensive and suitably inquisitive look at the internet and what it has been, is and may become (including its possible demise). Watching this film makes us aware of that which we normally take for granted (for better or worse) in this day and age.

Towards the end, one speaker claims that the internet is destroying critical thinking, especially in young people. This is an idea worthy of a series of documentaries and hints at the problem with Lo and Behold: Herzog simply covers too much ground in such a brief running time that the end result resembles a shaggy intellectual scrapbook. But this is often his M.O, and Herzog asks a few interesting questions regarding the internet's capacity to dream and the future of human companionship.

Mostly fluff 'till the final section -throwing poetic questions at scientists and engineers was far more interesting.

This documentary shows very well the many paths that Internet followed, is following and can follow. I feel fearful about the future.

A bullet-pointed tableaux of fairly standard but not uninteresting "dawn of the digital age" speculation, perhaps more interesting for what it says about Herzog himself. Of course this ecologist is cynical of technology's propagation, but leaps of thought and boundary are his thematic wheelhouse, and he treats esoterica of the internet and artificial intelligence with the same awe as remote corners of the natural world.

Kind of seems like Herzog is playing catch-up on this one. The sequence with the family of the girl who died in a car crash was truly bizzare and seemed completely out of place.

incomprehensible depth of focusing on each subject, very few inspiring aspects.

This was pretty good. The topic is handled very well, there even were some eye-opening moments.

A comprehensive look at internet by a man who is at least one generation removed. It's both a blessing and a curse for the movie.

Always good to hear Mr. Herzog's voice.

Segmented into about 10 chapters, each one focuses solely on a different aspect of the connected world (and how it affects humanity and the individual) and does so for each chapter rather clearly. An interesting and engaging watch, I think if this had expanded into a more in-depth TV series it could've been great.

For something that should be booooring Herzog keeps it enthralling. It's a bunch of big ideas crammed into small vignettes. I really enjoyed the part about water.

internet üzerine ve üzerinden, onun etrafında dolanarak daha ilgi çekici bir şey yapılabilir miydi, emin değilim. hem soyut bir kavram olarak hem de yaşamın etrafında programlandığı bir realite olarak ele alırken farklı bakış açıları ve yakalanan ilginç anlarla beraber herzog'un öne çıkan mizahı keyifli bir *akşam-kafa-yoklaması*na çeviriyor.

Feels like there's another film's worth of material here, which maybe comes at the expense of him going into as much depth as he could have. It's almost from the perspective of an outsider looking in, overwhelmed by the wealth of possibilities. I liked the chapters on EMF-free zones and internet addiction rehab centres, so it's a shame he couldn't have zoned in further. "Does the internet dream of itself?" really encapsulates Herzog colliding with another world.

This documentary goes all over the place and doesn't even seem to deal with the most important aspects of its main subject. Aside from this it's quite watchable though not very thought provoking or informative.

Certain moments make this quintessential Herzog (interview subjects doing 'interesting' things like smelling computers and running across rope bridges; H. asking whiz if he loves his robot; H. asking several if the internet dreams about itself). But the film feels scattered and haphazard in a way that takes away from the overall feel. I would have preferred him taking his time with any number of the chapters and making that the film (esp. mourning family and addicts).

A fascinating but chilling look into the Internet age that is often more concerned with the storyteller than the storytelling.

About a dozen segments dealing with rather disparate subjects revolving around modern technology and its social effects. Quite fascinating.

Herzog isn't trying or isn't able to find any greater truth out of what he sees (like he always does), not one of his best documentaries, but it's still a decent one.

For better or for worse, technological innovation has taken an ever-more prominent place in our daily lives. Yet beyond every innovative leap forward lies an uncomfortable albeit sobering reality of its many implications - including, but not limited to online shaming, reduced interaction and a growing reliance on living in a digital world. In classic Herzog fashion, Lo and Behold explores its various topics with insightful analysis and infectious inquisitiveness.

A depiction of the internet as a concept, an abstract concept, a physical object, a connection of physical objects, an interface and an enabler. Lo and Behold is a complete Herzog offering as any other, a hypnotic score, that has become accustom with these kinds of studies, accompanies the invasion of the documentary itself by typical Werner-isms from its creator, either way these encroachments always delight. Read the previous sentence in Herzog's voice.

Herzog can do much better. But an Herzog is an Herzog. More about tech in general than the Internet itself. Some fascinating stories in there, though.

As always, Werner is great, definitely worth watching for any fan

A 'zogventure in 'zoginess....

Scattershot, and not as thought provoking as it thinks it is at times. The subject seems to be beyond Herzog at times, with bits about self-driving cars, the "power of the Internet," and a strange scene with well-off family that showcases the dangers of internet all seem a little out-of-touch in our quickly changing world. The best scenes are Herzog pushing for human engagement with pioneers of technology. He still has a beautiful sense of humor, particularly in the scene with the monks.

Viewed August 19, 2016. Divided into ten chapters, Lo and Behold is essentially a series of short stories about the internet. It tackles the birth of the internet (Perhaps the best chapter in the film, a bizarro monologue delivered in grandstanding fashion by one of the original scientists behind the internet, who waxes poetic about how good the old computer smells), internet addiction, robot soccer players, internet public shaming, hacking and the apocalypse without ever losing a breath.