Scorpions: Forever and a Day follows the legendary German rock balladeers as they embark on their farewell tour. It is another concert film/documentary in the vein of the recent films of Justin Bieber, Katy Perry and Jennifer Lopez, the film looking into the history of the artist while sharing footage of their exploits as they perform around d the world. The difference here is that there is another level of obfuscation, as a weird choice in localization makes almost the entire movie completely unwatchable.
The choice made here is to excise all of the German talking heads. We still see the people talking, but what they're actually saying is relegated to subtitles. The audio is replaced with Scorpions' greatest hits played at maximum volume. And so we watch these people with their mouths moving and no sound coming out. What takes the fore in these scenes is the music, which is so prominent and powerful that it becomes disorienting to try to read the subtitles.
This renders the whole documentary portion of the film moot. The film doesn't really get to cover anything particularly interesting. Though it feels like these old rockers would be more forthcoming about their experiences, the film mostly has them celebrating who they are and what they've gone through. There's a lot of self-mythologizing and little reflection, the film doing little more than what could be learned on the band's Wikipedia page.
And one understands that people might be seeing this film specifically for the music, but the film only plays old recorded versions of these songs. One could just as easily dig these songs up on YouTube. The experience of hearing these songs certainly isn't made better by having to pay for it to see it in a theater. And one can't really concentrate on the music when it's matched with random footage of people talking.
One ends up having to choose: do you read the subtitles, or do you just listen to these old songs. Neither option is really worth paying for. The new concert footage is a little more compelling. It's still fun to see these guys go all out. On the other hand, there doesn't seem to have been much thought put into creating a more cinematic experience. There are baffling shots in here where one can't even make out the band members. The stagecraft isn't particularly impressive, with the band mostly standing in front of an LED lightboard.
Scorpions: Forever and a Day is a remarkable waste of time. With half the movie dedicated to the useless, audio-impaired talking head portion, a good chunk of watching the thing is spent struggling to read what is being said minus the benefit of intonation and personal delivery. The new concert footage isn't nearly enough reason to spend money in this headache of an experience. Only the most fanatical of Scorpions devotees need apply. And even then, it's difficult to recommend to anyone.
My Rating:
