SUM OF THE PARTS

I've witnessed some delightful gnashing of teeth over this documentary film. Apparently some of our fellow reviewers believed they were going to get a definitive career overview that covered every single thing they love about this band in 90 minutes time. It doesn't work that way. Certainly they could have handled it better. They could have taken more time and they could have focused on less stuff, getting really deep into the periods that are of utmost interest to fans. Not often do these kinds of projects turn out as good as they could. So what we end up with is the completely predictable modern-attention-span documentary, where music "experts" walk us common folk through each album of the bands long career. Analysis is superficial, there's little we haven't seen before, and the band members themselves seem intent on showing as little enthusiasm as possible. One does wonder why they bothered.

And yet, I enjoyed watching it very much. I'll probably never watch it again but it was worth the price to watch once. The bang for the buck is in the new interviews. Call me a masochist but I really do enjoy watching the guys in this band sound all stuffy and self-important, yes, even Tony. I enjoyed watching the guys interact as a group for what is likely the final time. Of course I would have preferred to have a true Genesis expert asking them detailed questions about various tracks and getting into the nitty gritty, but that isn't what they wanted here. They wanted essentially a celebratory promo for their back catalog, hoping that those who watch it will want to dive back into some of the albums they haven't heard in years. Maybe buy some remasters. The bonus section features some extended interviews with each member but they really don't flesh things out a great deal more. I do recommend this to fans who can go into it with reasonable expectations. It's a fun 90 minutes with your favorite band as they ride off into the sunset. Just don't set your sights any higher.

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