Antarctica is not a cute and cuddly continent. That much is evident watching Werner Herzog's engaging, educational documentary "Encounters at the End of the World."

Herzog, narrating the film in his distinctive German voice, does well to relate the frozen splendor of Antarctica, but he also shows the blight of human settlement and the dangers of exploring an unforgiving landscape.

It's a lesson in reality, but the magic of the inquisitive Herzog is that he does not preach from behind the lens; instead, he ponders. His films are full of questions, and when he asks them on camera, they are more rhetorical than investigative.

Intrigued by human motivation, Herzog visits McMurdo Station, a man-made settlement that's home to 1,000 people, a bowling alley and ATM machine, to find out what we are doing in Antarctica, and more specifically, what draws individuals to the continent.

And while Antarctica's famed wildlife does make cameo appearances throughout the film, Herzog makes it clear early on that he "would not come up with another film about penguins."

Instead, the G-rated "Encounters at the End of the World" focuses on a much more familiar but no less colorful assortment of creatures - a philosopher forklift driver, a journeyman plumber descended from a royal line of Aztecs - who work and study from McMurdo, which Herzog describes as something like "an ugly mining town."

Antarctica's human inhabitants are drawn to the South Pole seeking adventure or escape, and in some cases, both.

Most are scientists who are better off studying other species than relating to their own. Others are "professional dreamers" who saw in Antarctica a chance to explore - as Herzog calls it in the film's title - the end of the world.

We see them at work, monitoring volcanic activity and extracting seal milk for human weight loss research, and at play, rocking out on electric guitars on top of a building and watching old sci-fi flicks.

From the moment Herzog gets off the plane, which lands on a runway atop an 8-foot sheet of ice, he captures moments of awe both expected and unexpected. There are the strange sounds of seals recorded under the ice; the mesmerizing dance of alien sea creatures; the psychedelic play of light and color on the underwater ice.

Then there's the 67,000-pound bus Herzog and his crew board after landing; a diver making the last dive of his career; a group of new arrivals undergoing safety training that includes wearing buckets on their heads to replicate a whiteout.

Throughout, Herzog adds his unique insight to what he films, at one point comparing divers suiting up to "priests preparing for mass."

Environmental concerns are addressed - "Our presence on this planet does not seem to be sustainable," Herzog surmises - but "Encounters at the End of the World" never feels like a message film.

Instead, the visually stunning work can be best described by the words carved into a wood railing in McMurdo: "I sink into bliss."

Chad Dryden: 672-6734