8/10
It was pretty much exactly what I thought a Werner Herzog-directed-and-narrated 3D documentary about 32,000 year old cave paintings would be like. I guess the only surprising thing was how straightforward it was (Herzog "documentaries" often contain outright lies and made-up situations) but when you're being backed by History Television, or whatever it was, I guess you have to play on the right side of the line.
I was a little surprised at how immersed and interested I was in the paintings. You'd think in a 90 minute movie about some old drawings you'd get bored after a while, but I really didn't. Herzog doesn't pose any revelatory questions on the surface but I think the film does a good job of subtly nudging the viewer to ask them of him/herself (about the only unsubtle thing is the score, which is nice, but clearly had the "wondrous and mystical" knob turned to 11). Anyone expecting cold, hard facts might be a bit disappointed as the documentary is definitely Herzogian in nature ("what kind of dreams did these cave-dwellers have?" is given precedence over "what substance did they use to paint them?", for example) but as an avowed fan, I took it all in stride.
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