Flo Lieb’s review published on Letterboxd:
The pictures are quite captivating, especially in combination with Philip Glass' magnificent hypnotic score.
But somehow I can't really get behind the editing of this movie. The flow of pictures tell no story and transport no theme, making me wonder if you basically could just throw this clips in a shuffle without changing much about the end product. There are war scenes with explosions, then later inner city traffic. Could the traffic have preceded the war scenes?
Also some scenes are repetitive, not adding anything new except more time-lapse footage of people walking, cars driving – and repeat. Considering "koyaanisqatsi" means "life in turmoil" in Hopi that's not necessarily the message the movie eventually transports, even if it ends on the explosion of the Atlas-Centaur.