Raël: The Alien Prophet (2024) User Reviews

Another self-absorbed cult leader

[Amazing-Stories · 7/10 · 9 February 2024]

"The highest truth of the universe has been revealed to me: it's that you should all worship me, have sex with me (but only if you're good looking) and give me all your money."

Fascinating and infuriating story about how even some very well educated people can fall prey to a self-absorbed cult leader and waste their lives covering up his lies.

In the style of Holy Hell (about the Buddhafield sect) and Wild,Wild Country (about the Bhagwan/Osho sect), Raël: The Last Prophet tells the story of a cult mainly through interviews with current and former members, mixed with old footage of the sect's often absurd activities.

Interestingly, the cult leader himself, Claude Vorilhon ("Raël"), who has managed to become venerated as a prophet by tens of thousands of followers globally, agreed to be interviewed for this production at his current home in Japan.

Ultimate delusional guru !

[lucienm-60321 · 7/10 · 8 February 2024]

Raël is definitely the ultimate for delusional and for gullible, naive followers.

It's not the usual guru sect.

This sect goes way over the top and is still going after nearly 50 years.

What's different about Raël?

Well, this Frenchman claimed that he was taken to another planet to meet the creators of humans.

Not enough you say?

When on the other planet, he met all the main prophets, including Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, etc... Still not enough for you?

Raël claimed they cloned a human being !

That was so controversial the US passed a law to ban any human cloning.

Raël even had a senate hearing where he testified.

This Netflix documentary series is a rare one where it's just the right length.

I enjoyed this documentary because .... honestly , I have never seen such a high level of gullibility, even for sects !

Examining yet another cult, this one a European version

[paul-allaer · 7/10 · 24 February 2024]

As Episode 1 of "Raël The Alien Prophet" (2024 release from France; 4 episodes of about 45 min each) opens, it is "Mexico 2021" and a woman who has been a Raëlian since 1993 is being interviewed. We then go back in time to how Raël got his start, and slowly but surely is building a "movement" based on accepting that UFOs have sent extra-terrestrials to help humankind. At this point we are 10 minutes into Episode 1.

Couple of comments: this is yet another documentary mini-series focusing on how a group becomes a cult. The parallels with prior instances are striking, but what makes this still worthwhile is that this movement started in France in the 1970s. There are some interesting "plot changes" along the way which I certainly will not spoil here. The film makers were able to interview quite a few of the cult members (present or past). It seems there are several reviewers here that cannot distinguish between the cult they disagree with and the documentary regarding that cult. To rate this mini-series 1/10 is simply preposterous.

"Raël: The Last Prophet" recently started streaming on Netfilx and I watched all 4 episodes last night in a single setting. As such not revolutionary is revealed but I simply enjoyed watching this. If you are in the mood for another serving of how cults become a cult, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

I believe

[atleverton · 7/10 · 3 March 2024]

That aliens might have visited earth, and why wouldn't they? It's a fascinating planet. What I don't believe is that they randomly stopped some French guy and made him the Messiah. I also don't believe that they created humanity, because evolution is a good explanation for that. Rael seems to be a typical cult leader doing nefarious stuff because people let him. The one thing I don't really understand is how opposed people are to human cloning. At the moment it would be a purely biological process - identical twins are clones, so why not give childless couples another option, apart from IVF? If you know nothing about this group, it's a good watch. A.

Netflix, aim higher than this

[ConditionsOfUse · 1/10 · 28 February 2024]

This is just another generic story about a somewhat charismatic cult leader and a bunch of lost people who followed him, willing to accept any kind of nonsense to find structure and direction in their lives. However, this case isn't particularly interesting, and as a documentary, it feels lazy, much like many Netflix documentaries that prioritize viewer engagement over meaningful storytelling or observation of phenomena. Instead of creating yet another mediocre drama with a straightforward narrative, relying on testimonials and archive footage as supporting arguments for whatever predetermined story they want to tell, the documentary could have explored broader themes, such as the phenomenon of cults and their similarities to religions. It could have delved deeper into the emergence and practice of monotheistic religions over the past 3000 years, examining the differences between this cult leader and historical figures from Judea, Mecca, or Vermont. Alternatively, the documentary could have focused on Scientology and confronted the influence of Hollywood head-on.

I understand Netflix's business model; these documentaries are cost-effective to produce, add fresh content to the catalog, and keep viewers engaged for longer periods. However, they often lack cinematic or social value. While Netflix's documentary production budget may be small compared to their fiction projects, it still surpasses that of traditional non-streaming documentary projects. It's disappointing that Netflix doesn't aim higher and instead serves up the same content we've seen on cable TV for years, albeit with the Netflix brand attached.

The English voices/translation

[jzer0 · 1/10 · 8 February 2024]

These voices made my head feel like it was going to explode. Constantly talking over each other in weird cartoon or AI sounding voices. I had to turn it off even though the information seemed interesting enough. I don't even think I can explain it. Hopefully I'm not the only one that feels this way.

It's almost like the backup voices are too loud and the audio is all mixed strangely.

I appreciate that it is more fast paced than a lot of these series and that it isn't set up like some true crime podcast.

I with they would release it with the original dialog and English subtitles. Time to find something else to watch.

Dilusional cult again?

[tearitdownner · 2/10 · 8 February 2024]

People are so gullible, they believe just about anything. I'm surprised that during the old footage of that guru guy getting interviewed when he was young that nobody asked well. Were you taking drugs? Were you on drugs? What drugs did you take? Seriously, I mean yeah I saw UFO and it took him to another planet or whatever other stuff he said, but nobody asked like because that in that day and age drugs were huge. All these cults were like full of drugs so I'm surprised nobody asked like were you on heroin? Did you try LSD? Were you smoking pot like all the time or something like that? Nobody asked any of those questions so I think it's all BS I know people that went on drug trips and said exact same kind of crap And they have that blonde lady that's a chemist to give validation to this because she's really intelligent and she has a degree and she's so smart so of course she believes that it must be true. I just think she's also delusional. She probably had like massive sex orgies at that place and you know that's what most of those cults are all about Due to me, I'm getting no vibes from him of being real all I'm getting vibes of some narcissistic lonely insecure dude that somehow got people to follow him with his BS.

Poor

[MorphiaMorgani · 1/10 · 10 February 2024]

This is a very badly made documentary. The first episode makes it seem like it's in favour of this cult. Clearly the cult is almost an exact copy of Judaism or Christianity. Elohim is found in Genesis in the bible. Please look it up if you don't know. Clearly Elohim is not to do with aliens. There is no evidence or logic but these people think this nonsense is the truth? It's worse than a main stream religion. There is no commentary or narration, just the members talking about it. I didn't bother watching all of it as I was bored. The worst documentary I've seen on this kind of topic. Don't waste your time. The French could learn from the U. K and U. S. on how to do this properly.

This one is the worst doc about cult I have ever watched...

[nillbass · 1/10 · 10 February 2024]

...so far.

Every time I see something about cult leaders I get very very triggered. "Why?" This is always the question in my mind. And: "I just can not understand people in general, but these ones I understand less." And I sincerelly feel a total despise about every one of them.

You can see some in this very doc series wearing that ridiculous necklace. Rael starts saying that catholicism is bad because you believe in someone with a white beard in the clouds, but, in the same direction he believes in green creatures, from, well, the sky. And also, he started his cult with baptism with, wow, WATER!

I can not understand these people, I think that must have some point in human brain that some alerts need to ring. I see that some of these got alerts when he, again, asked them to pay 10% of their salaries, and, haha 1% to the "prophet" hahaha like we tithe from the ahhh you know.

The thing that remains in my head is: Rael wanted only 2 things: money and sex. No money, no sex, and mainly when you are ugly af. Like he is. There are 2 kind of people in this world: the smart ones and their followers that are (Since I can not say the word here) well, not that smart.

The thing that really annoyed me more in this doc is that this bald horrible crearure is still alive. I liked the "wild wild west" because you get the relief that osho died. But there was still a bunch of not that smart people following him even after its death (yeah I used "it").

If you know someone that is falling into something like this, show them all of these kind of cult docs, watch with them, it is funny, there are a lot of things ti laugh at. And make the ridiculous thing evident, or, you should right in the begining stay away from this kind of friend because, you know: "A man is known by the company he keeps." So keep away.