Antarctica

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.

The film "Antarctica," which I viewed today in IMAX format, is a documentary about the continent of the same name. The movie opens with an excellent shot of an icebreaker plowing through sea-ice like a hot knife through butter. Then a narrator starts talking, which kills the mood. This pretty much sums up the entire movie: great cinematography, mediocre to poor narration.

As other reviewers have pointed out, the writers seemed to try to cram as many subjects as they could into the 40-minute running time. This had the result of being the viewer being yanked away from a topic just as she was getting interested in it, such as during the visually spectacular underwater caverns sequence. Many of the subjects were just plain dull, such as the semi-obligatory pronouncements about the harm humans are doing to the earth and its climate. While most likely true, this is always a downer when viewed in a documentary one paid $9.50 to see.

In addition, the film had several factual errors, not the least of which was saying the Scott Expedition met its tragic end "eleven miles from safety." In fact, they were eleven miles from an unmanned depot, hardly safety. Also, as any serious student of Antarctica knows, the ceremonial "barber pole" at Amundsen-Scott Station is NOT the true South Pole, as was strongly implied in the movie.

In conclusion, I can recommend this for Antarctica buffs only, and even for them only with the above caveats.

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.

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.