Both of director Godfrey Reggio's previous films, Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi, end the same way. After sitting through roughly 90 minutes of speechless, poetic and fascinating film footage set to the music of famed composer Philip Glass, an affected viewer is likely able to conjure up a meaning to the imagery. Then, after the last scene fades away, the film's Hopi languaged-title reappears, accompanied by its definition, which puts the previous viewing experience into a powerful context and further clarifies the movie's themes. 

And, although Naqoyqatsi, Reggio's final installment of what he has dubbed the "Qatsi Trilogy," ends in the same fashion, it has much less impact than the closing of its predecessors. When the other two movies ended, I nodded my head. This time, I just scratched it.

Those familiar with the first two movies should have a pretty good idea of what to expect. Reggio's works are scolding reflections on the state of the modern world -- Koyaanisqatsi reveals civilization as having developed into a monster of directionless redundancy, while Powaqqatsi shows how technology degrades the innate beauty of less-developed countries outside Western borders. Both movies reveal Reggio's bias against technology in general -- nature and culture are essentially eaten and spit back out as waste by modern machines and cities. It is therefore only natural that Naqoyqatsi places its bullseye on technology itself.

Yet, curiously, the definition of Naqoyqatsi, according to its tagline, is "life as war." The full definition given at the end of the movie expands the idea a little further -- it is described as "civilized violence." Does this mean Reggio believes technology is killing us? That it is leading us to a path of doom? That theme isn't expressed clearly throughout the film. Several sequences no doubt haunt and disturb -- one sequence about science ends with an image of Dolly, the cloned sheep; another features bomb explosions; yet another throws a train of corporate logos at the viewer -- but they are woven together with confusing sections highlighting sports, babies, and a parade of wax figures resembling world leaders.

The decision to computer-generate or computer-enhance all  scenes in the movie doesn't help. Although seemingly  a good artistic idea, it creates two problems for the viewer, especially when contrasted with the presentations of the first two Qatsi movies. First, the movie loses its feeling of spontaneity -- the other two movies featured live footage of people just being people, events just being events, and with that came a sense of eye-opening wonder. Naqoyqatsi is assembled from stock footage and abstract cg-graphics -- every part of the movie feels scripted as result, like less a feeling of observational participation and more a feeling of being taken on a guided tour in a museum.

Second, the warmth of humanity and the accessibility of tangible real-world experience is excised from this film, leaving behind a cold and impersonal impression. Maybe that was Reggio's point all along -- to use technology in an ironic way, both as the presenter and the presentation, all while admonishing itself. If that's the case, he deserves kudos because it works, but, no matter how you slice it, this method makes it that much harder to get into Naqoyqatsi and let it overwhelm your feelings the way the other two movies could.

Still, because of its fascinating subject matter, and, more than anything else, its fabulous display of artistry, Naqoyqatsi  is not a failure. The images generated by the computer artists appear sleek and often chilling; the musical score by Philip Glass is rapturous -- the most expansive and elaborately orchestrated out of all the Qatsi scores (and it gets a boost from cello solos by Yo-Yo Ma). We can safely assume Reggio's film is presented exactly as he conceived it. Nevertheless, because of its general obtuseness, Naqoyqatsi will probably stay in the shadow of its two older, more accessible Qatsi siblings. 

(Review also posted at www.windowtothemovies.com)

Released by Miramax and rated "PG" for violent and disturbing images and for brief nudity.