Well, when it came to Powaqqatsi's camera-work, I certainly had nothing to really complain about in regards to that. Overall, it was quite excellent and impressive to behold.But, with that said, I honestly have to admit that viewing recurring images of 3rd World poverty and population overload (set at a gruellingly slow pace) did, indeed, become quite tiresome to sit through, in the long run.In fact, I ended up watching most of Powaqqatsi in fast-forward mode - 'Cause I knew that I just couldn't have endured viewing it, from start to finish, at its full 99-minute running time. No way.Powaqqatsi was directed by Godfrey Reggio. Its budget was $2.5 million.

This film is, according to its director, a look at a "global culture"; a visual assessment of the response of the "third world" to the force of globalization and the pressure to modernize. He says there are both good points and bad points to be observed, and hopes to portray the creativity and industriousness with which people around the world respond to the demands of their environments.I do not see this. I see a moving, and beautiful film, but not about this. I see the destructive effects of the ever-increasing commodification of nature, life, and labor, on people as they are forced to abandon their homes and livelihoods to nationalist projects and capital ventures. I see (to use Karl Polanyi's words) the uprooting of peoples and places, and the destructive forces of market enterprise disguised under tropes of progress and modernity.Yes. Human beings are creative and industrious, and have dealt with these problems in unique and fascinating ways. But, rather than simply celebrating the Beauty of Human Life, in all it's glory, let this film be a call to recognize this beauty, and recognize its value as intrinsic, as part and parcel to the livelihoods of the people it is embodied within.

Drones, ethnic drumming, bad synthesizer piping, children singing. The most patronizing "world music" imaginable. This is a tourist film, and a lousy one. What really kills it is the incoherent sequences. India, Egypt, South America, Africa, etc, etc. No transitions, no visual explanation of why we're suddenly ten thousand miles away, no ideas expressed in images. Just a bunch of footage of third-worlders with "baskets on their heads" as another reviewer said. Walking along endlessly as if that had some deep meaning. If these guys wanted to make a 3rd World music video, all they had to do was head a few hundred miles south of where the best parts of Koya were shot, and film in Mexico. That would have been a much better setting for "life in transformation."But no. What they decided on was a scrambled tourist itinerary covering half the globe and mind-deadeningly overcranked filter shots. The only thing to recommend this film is that it doesn't suck quite as much as Naqoyqatsi.RstJ

As mentioned earlier by others, this film is basically a weakerversion of Baraka (by Koyaanisqatsi cinematographer Ron Fricke),a film very much like Powaqqatsi, focussing some more on thereligious rituals of southern hemisphere cultures.Powaqqatsi definitely is a disappointment as a follow up ofKoyaanisqatsi. There is no consistence of any kind. Some scenesare going on for way too long (the gold mine sequence in the SerraPelada, Brazil is nice but becomes tiresome already before themain title). Other sequences are uneven and cluttered and wedon't know where we are. The movie is almost entirely overcranked (in slow motion), asopposed to the perfect combination of time lapse (much of it withmotion blur to make it smoother plus smooth camera panning),slow motion and the use of stock footage in Koyaanisqatsi whichhad a wonderful atmosphere to it and works on many levels. Powaqqatsi is supposed to make no statement about how thingsshould be - according to director Godfrey Reggio. Why then thesequence editing US American tv commercials and militaryimages (is this evidence of how Reggio felt about Powaq. notcoming close to Koyaanis. in meaning)? Powaq.'s photography is of great quality, yet many motifs aresimply not interesting enough to be on screen for that long. I havethe feeling that the team simply didn't come home with enoughinteresting footage in the can and had to make something out ofwhat they had in the editing room. The few great shots which letsus emerge in unfamiliar worlds don't make up for the higherpercentage of footage of no interest whatsoever.Check Ron Fricke's "Baraka" to see what Powaqqatsi could havebeen and should have been. I also agree about some comments regarding Philip Glass' score.It is sometimes is flat out corny and sounds very much like whatone might expect in a late 1980s "we are all one world" beer orcookie commercial. Philip Glass is a great and original composer for symphonicminimalism, but as a composer of world music he hasn't got thevein. The Powaq. score is several notches below the magic ofwhat he did for Koyaanis. Again: Baraka has a better score as well.Watch Powaqqatsi to ifill yourself in on the second installment ofthe ..qatsi trilogy. It's not a bad film, but IMHO Godfrey Reggio wasunable to deliver the footage for this concept. Ron Fricke did it in"Baraka".