The film itself is a leaden variation on [Herzog's] Aguirre, the Wrath of God. It’s Aguirre without the inspired images or great subject.

My reaction is strictly, "So what?”

This botched, shapeless, gratuitous, ignoble, neo-colonialist film is so poorly made, written, edited, and directed that its centerpiece, its raison d'tre -- the honest-to-God hauling of a boat up a mountain before your eyes -- is meaningless.

It has a striking, triumphant conclusion, even if the pacing and significance of the voyage aren’t nearly as momentous as in Herzog’s prior works.