'Chronos' - (Short) Movie Review

Ron Fricke gained some fame in the early 1980s working with Godfrey Reggio on his visual masterpiece "Koyaanisqatsi." Wikipedia says of him "specializing in time-lapse photography and large format cinematography." "Chronos" was his first work as director (at least if you believe Wikipedia), although it only runs 45 minutes. The original IMAX images come out an odd size on DVD, less than the full width of a 16:9 screen. Scenes vary between nature (we start in the American west), famous sites (Michelangelo's David was in there - odd when I was there two weeks ago), and cities (New York featured heavily). Very few shots are in real time: many are sped up, a few slowed down, and some odder modifications are made. It's lovely to behold, but I didn't feel like it went anywhere. It made me realise that Reggio's "Koyaanisqatsi" (just as dialogue-free) really does have a successful progression and message, because I found none at all in this. I wrote a blog entry on Cinematography a couple months ago, although you don't need to read it: it's a long rant to say that "plot matters more than cinematography to me, even though I love cinematography" ... so I wasn't too surprised to find myself vaguely disappointed by this. At least it wasn't lumbered by lousy actors or terrible dialogue: it's pure, beautiful imagery.