Antarctica

Antarctica is breath-taking. It takes you under the ice of Antarctica, it shows you the amazing fauna that can survive in such harsh climates. I have read that it has sold more than one hundred Million dollars worth of tickets. m not surprised. Certainly it is the best IMAX film I haVE SEEN: According to the Australian film commission it is the second or third most successful Australian film of any kind ever released.

The story of humanities search for understanding - beyond the edge of what is known - is extraordinarily moving. The music is amazing in its own right I have a copy of a concerto based on it recorded by the London Symhony Orchestra with the guitarist John Williams. I recommend it to everyone.

I love IMAX. However, this film lacks many of the qualities of other IMAX films. While the photography is beautiful it has virtually no story line. The film heads off into seven different directions with no thread to guide the viewer.

Absolutely love nature documentaries and plenty of those made into IMAX short films were quite good and more. As well as that, another big reason to see 'Antarctica' to me was Antarctica itself. It's a beautiful and unforgiving place, plenty of habitats are those things but not many as much as the Antarctic. It is a place that has been visited many times in documentaries, but it is so fascinating and have often learnt something new each time it's covered.

Really do wish though that 'Antarctica' was better. Have generally been impressed by the IMAX documentary short films, but this is one of the few to not do much for me. While having no issues with the visuals or animals, other documentaries have educated and interested me a lot more and the things that the IMAX documentary short films varied a lot on are failures here in 'Antarctica' and in a way that's big enough to bring things down significantly.

Beginning with the good, the production values are exemplary. The Antarctic scenery is a wonder and is as beautiful and unforgiving as ever and spectacularly photographed. The IMAX doesn't cheapen anything.

Did love the animals, ones that are diverse in size and whether prey or not, and there are parts that are charming and cute.

Unfortunately, 'Antarctica' is let down badly by the constant and overbearing music and that the already cheesy narration writing is delivered in too jokey a way that is really at odds with what's going on screen and constantly took me out of the setting.

Pacing is a major issue too, 'Antarctica' does try to cram in and cover far too much, which means that the whole thing feels very rushed and severely under-developed. Also wasn't really educated that much, very little here that covers any new ground and it felt over-familiar. Subtlety wasn't a strong suit either, some of the delivery felt too heavy.

In summary, disappointing. 4/10.

The footage in this movie looks great on a big screen, however the documentary left me desiring a lot more. There are long sections with mediocre sound effects/music where the creator could have provided a lot of interesting information about penguins, glaciers, Antarctica, etc. This is supposed to be a documentary, after all!

I give it 8 stars for good visuals, 2 stars for lack of content = 5 stars overall.

Normally I love documentaries about Antarctica. The grandeur and desolation of the continent lends itself to phenomenal photography, while the animal life provides insight as to how tough the living conditions actually are.

But this film was a great disappointment. I'm not really giving anything away by saying it tried to do too many things within the course of 40 minutes. Everything got short shrift: human exploration, current scientific missions, fauna, geology, weather. All of these things have been explored much better in other documentaries. This movie should have stayed to the strengths of its format: wide angle views of the desolate landscape. There is little action here, why try to create some? The sound editing was atrocious. On what is essentially a frozen wasteland, one would expect some quiet when the wind wasn't howling. But the sound editors seemingly went out of their way to add in noisome effects.

The music was especially annoying. Scenes of boats and hovercrafts simply moving next to icebergs were accompanied by minor-key aural blasts more suitable for a horror movie. And I can't even comment on the cloying, near-onomatopoeic track accompanying the Adelie penguins. It must be heard in context to be believed.

Not that I recommend you doing so. Four stars.