Disturbing yet enthralling

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Like any curious person, I'm open but also aware, skeptical, questioning. This movie really surprised me no crop circles have NOT been debunked. This movie debunks the debunk. See why. Nothing conspiracy here. Just brilliant minds investigating a real-life phenomenon that we should ALL be far more interested in. Why are some of us embarrassed to openly explore disturbing, puzzling events that we don't understand? I would really like to see a part two to this film, another version that explores the circles from other perspectives, current news on the circle happenings, and unexplored explanations. To me, one key part of the film is how the corn stalks were "cut" differently by the two men who staged their own - - versus all the other circles. There's something BIG there that deserves deeper, clearer communication to the viewer.

This movie is frustrating. It treats all of the "experts" equally. There are dowsers, psychics, housewives, crop researchers Living in Los Angeles who have never seen a crop circle, sensitives, flakes of every description... They spout their woo about vibrations, emanations, psychic connections with aliens, military conspiracy theories...It is done in the Erich von Däniken style: could this be a time warp to another dimension? Could crop circles cure AIDS? I tease, but they spin endless bullshit without any evidence.They talk about there being "electric fields" inside the crop circles. But they never got anyone with any credentials to measure them or say what they meant. They could easily have meant "magnetic fields". Nobody in the whole movie seemed have more than a sixth grade science education.Because they have so many flakes, and people with crop circle tourism businesses babbling on, you never know who is putting you on. You can't trust a thing anybody in the movie says. The movie intends to hard sell you on woo. It makes no attempt to give a balanced picture.I consider crop circles a form of art. What puzzles me is the exquisite quality of most of them. Usually public graffiti is dreadful. I am also puzzled that nobody has managed to get photos of a partially complete crop circle. Surely automatic IR cameras should have caught someone. There are claims of various features of the crop circles being of superior quality to clearly man made ones. For me to believe that, I need someone with reliable credentials. Since we don't have that, I suspect that is just nonsense to reel in the tourists.Unfortunately, there are not that many aerial photos of the crop circles. They are not nearly as impressive from the ground.

Crop circles will blow your mind! Are they a brilliant hoax, proof of alien existence or God's artwork? 'What on Earth?' explores this fascinating phenomenon with sensitivity, intelligence and beautiful photography. Suzanne Taylor is a charming sleuth and guide into the community of scientist, philosophers, geometers, psychics, spiritualists and screwballs that form around the area in southern England every summer as the new crop of circles come in. The circle appear overnight, some as large as a football field, challenge the current science of geometry and display stunning beauty. With insightful interviews, in depth analysis and awesome aerial photography Ms Taylor probes the evidence, history, significance and speculation that the existence of these miraculous circles pose. If you are seeking an entertaining overview of the controversy and conundrums of what many think is truly the greatest mystery on earth today, let Suzanne take your hand and introduce you to the people that are passionately trying to wrap their minds around the subject and come up with some out-of-the-box answers.

Being of generally open mind, I'm always a bit startled to find hidden pockets of prejudgment in my thinking. So it was when I first approached Suzanne Taylor's surprisingly superior "What On Earth? – Inside The Crop Circle Mystery." When the film was first recommended to me, I remember thinking, "Didn't they prove that was all a big hoax? Weren't there a couple of guys who even showed how they 'made' those circles?" Even before I saw a frame of this film, I was predisposed to be skeptical, with a decided lack of a factual basis for my opinions.In its engaging, accessible, good-hearted way, "What On Earth?" takes us on a journey of discovery striking in its depth, surreal in its beauty, and profound in its implications. With filming primarily on location around Wiltshire, England – the epicenter of worldwide crop circle activity -- filmmaker Suzanne Taylor also serves as our guide to the wonderful circles, and to the fascinating community of scientists, philosophers, physicists, artists, visionaries and just plain folks whose lives have been indelibly imprinted by the circles. They come from all over the world, drawn by the mystical, transformative power of this place. What is the connection of these formations to the other spiritual sites of southern England? What intelligence created them? What is the meaning of their intricate geometry and mathematics? What do they suggest about our place in the cosmic order? And if they are, at the very least, evidence that we are not alone, how must that recognition influence our world view? The film exposes the credibility gap of the so-called "hoaxers", who got a frenzy of media attention when they claimed credit for creating the crop circles. The inordinate amount of attention given these hoaxers points to a larger practice of public disinformation on the subject of extraterrestrial or paranormal activity which systematically seeks to discredit any kind of evidence. But even the clumsy footwork of the hoaxers and the full compliance of the media machine can't conceal the gaping holes in the hoax narrative.Revealing evidence comes from the plants themselves. When "stomped" into place, the stalks of the plants exhibit breaking and scarring caused by a mechanical apparatus. In the real circles (the ones that spontaneously "drop" into place) there is no mechanical damage to the plants. Instead, we observe the phenomenon of bent or blown nodes –a physical change in the cellular structure of the plants themselves, where the tiny "knuckles" of the plant stem simply bend or explode as though from some internal force. We see that the plants "lay down" in symmetrical spirals and patterns. We learn of the tremendous electromagnetic influence of these formations, that cameras, electronic equipment and cell phones which function perfectly outside the circles become inoperative and useless inside them. We understand that the circles, though concentrated in this region of Southern England, are a global phenomenon with examples dating back hundreds if not thousands of years – centuries before the hoaxers ever set foot in a cornfield. The same two guys who claimed credit for making the crop circles later admitted they'd never made a crop circle in Wiltshire, which is where most of them have historically appeared.Taylor has crafted a wonderful, deceptively rich, compelling film. Beyond the interviews and information, "What On Earth?" provides us with an experience of the awe and majesty of these marvelous mysteries. Perhaps the most subtle and satisfying part of the film is when the camera settles back without commentary and allows us to simply contemplate the spectacular circles in all their strange cosmic glory. Suffice it to say that I was not only divested of my skepticism by this thought provoking film, but also led into an examination of some basic questions about the nature of our reality here on Earth. Are we truly not alone? Are the circles evidence of another reality altogether? Is a higher-order intelligence trying to tell us something? Are these designs solutions to the problems of our existence and sustainability as a species? Are they being presented by teachers who are trying to reach us, to stretch our minds, to open ourselves to the possibility of a reality of which we have not even dreamed? The film deftly poses the questions and then allows us to ponder the answers offered in stunning detail by the crop circles themselves.Kudos to the filmmaker and to the architects of the circles. You've all done a most impressive job.