"Botschaft der Götter" is a West German documentary film from 1976, so it has its 40th anniversary this year. It was made by Manfred Barthel, Charles Romine and Harald Reinl and it is based on a book by Erich von Däniken. This is not the first time Reinl adapted a work by von Däniken and for his previous project he managed to score an Academy Award nomination, his biggest success. So it should not be a surprise that he makes another movie based on the work by the Swiss author. The success of the last probably also let actor William Shatner agree to star in here as the narrator and also interviewer on some occasions. or maybe it was just that Shatner was obviously the right man due to his "Star Trek" past when it comes to narrating a film that has a lot to do with astronauts, aliens and extraterrestrial life.
I personally really like Shatner, but still I must say that this documentary brought really nothing to the table that we have not seen already in so so many other documentaries and I also felt the interviewees were a bit strange and sometimes had no justification to appear in this little movie. I must say I am glad this was a fairly short film as it only runs for slightly over 80 minutes. It is only worth seeing if you have a very strong interest in the subject, but not to get you interested plus von Däniken's work of course always has to be seen critically as scientific research often works against him. I give "Mysteries of the Gods" a thumbs-down. Not recommended.
I personally really like Shatner, but still I must say that this documentary brought really nothing to the table that we have not seen already in so so many other documentaries and I also felt the interviewees were a bit strange and sometimes had no justification to appear in this little movie. I must say I am glad this was a fairly short film as it only runs for slightly over 80 minutes. It is only worth seeing if you have a very strong interest in the subject, but not to get you interested plus von Däniken's work of course always has to be seen critically as scientific research often works against him. I give "Mysteries of the Gods" a thumbs-down. Not recommended.