Chronos

1985 Koyaanisqatsi clone

Rating: 14/20 (Mark: 14/20)

Plot: Time-lapse footage of nature juxtaposed with time-lapse footage of people. Sound familiar?

This is reminiscent of Koyaanisqatsi, far too reminiscent. There's a bit more emphasis on art and architecture. It lacks the cohesion of Koyaanisqatsi, and the music, though not nearly as redundant, lacks the power of the Glass stuff. There's some stunning imagery here, but it's not organized very well. Slowly evolving desert images or shots of immobile pyramids butting up against high-speed tours of canals just didn't mesh very well. A lot of the footage didn't need the trickery of the time-lapse photography, although I did like seeing the time-lapse stuff combined with panning. I just can't recall seeing that before. This is worth seeing, and short enough to not seem like a complete waste if somebody doesn't think it's worth seeing. It's artful enough; it's just not well organized. Koyaanisqatsi builds to a crescendo and makes its (similar) point poetically and powerfully. Chronos hiccups a few times, stumbles around, and then ends. This did teach me one thing though--I'm not a very cultured fellow. I didn't even know where a lot of the landmarks were located.