Poster art for "Encounters at the End of the World."

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Avg. Critic Score: 80 out of 100 Universal acclaim Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
7 OK for kids 7+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 100
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    The stunning images aren't enough for Herzog, though. He wants us to see how these quirky researchers, in their lust to explore, are acting out a drive as primitive as nature: the need to break away from the world in order to find it. Read full review

  • 100
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    It is a poem of oddness and beauty. Read full review

  • 90
    The New York Times | Manohla Dargis

    Like many of Mr. Herzog's movies, fiction and nonfiction, Encounters at the End of the World itself has the quality of a dream: it's at once vivid and vague, easy to grasp and somehow beyond reach. Read full review

  • 88
    Boston Globe | Ty Burr

    Does Antarctica attract dreamers or create them? It's a thread that runs throughout the film. Read full review

  • 88
    Philadelphia Inquirer | Carrie Rickey

    Through Herzog's eyes it is a desolate, strangely beautiful frozen Edenish hell where the planet, having shaken out its pockets, lets the loners, fanatics and cosmologist-crackpots fall to bottom. Read full review

  • 80
    Los Angeles Times |

    The images captured by Herzog and cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger are dazzling all on their own, finding the disorienting psychedelia that is nature at its weirdest. Read full review

  • 80
    Washington Post | Desson Thomson

    It's as much fun to anticipate what he's (Herzog) going to say as it is to appreciate the snowy landscapes, belching volcanoes and mustachioed seals before his lens. And what could have been a conventional travelogue becomes a sort of ruminative odyssey of the mind. Read full review

  • 75
    San Francisco Chronicle | Walter Addiego

    An enjoyable example of this extraordinary director's documentary work. Read full review

  • 70
    The Hollywood Reporter | Michael Rechtshaffen

    Retains considerable entertainment value on the strength of Herzog's never-dull, very personal narrating style. Read full review

  • 70
    Variety | Scott Foundas

    Resultant picture -- one of Herzog's best and most purely enjoyable -- may lack the built-in curio factor of "Grizzly Man." Read full review


Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says OK for kids 7+ South Pole documentary is gorgeous, if a bit dry.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this beautiful documentary -- which follows filmmaker Werner Hertzog to various scientific and research stations at the South Pole -- is fairly dry stuff, particularly compared to similarly themed audience-friendly docs like March of the Penguins. At the same time, it's a celebration of scientific curiosity and the human spirit, and while young kids may be vaguely flummoxed by Herzog's narration, the movie is absolutely family-friendly and full of astonishing images and ideas.
  • Families can talk about how this documentary is different from movies like March of the Penguins and Arctic Tale. What audience do you think it was made for? Families can also discuss exploring. What motivates people to go to places like the South Pole? Does seeing a far-off place on TV or in a movie make you want to go there?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: The film calls attention to the pursuit of knowledge for knowledge's sake.
What to watch for
  • violence false0 Violence and scariness: Not an issue
  • sex false0 Sexy stuff: Minor discussion of homosexuality among penguins.
  • language false0 Language: A written card includes the word "hell."
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Herzog's trip is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false0 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Not an issue

Encounters at the End of the World Movie Ratings + Reviews

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So-so 135 fan reviews

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