Deep Sea

A startling trip down under (I don't mean Australia!!) under the sea, specially for mugs like me who cant swim, scuba or otherwise get wet. Awe-inspiring and drenched with mystique. The part about the millions of coral polyps releasing their spawn precisely on the eighth day after the new moon, at a synchronized moment 1 hour after sunset...well that may be a mystery to scientists!! I asked my young nephews as we returned home, "who programmed the Game Boys for your PC? Who programmed those polyps?" They responded spontaneously to the logical conclusion, off course youths do not fear the conclusions to which their minds naturally lead them. Mystery indeed! Our only misgiving was we didn't see any sea-horses, my wifes favorite poisson.

Deep Sea is the latest joy to be released in IMAX but part of its excellence comes, as so often, from being presented in IMAX 3D. All films should be released in this format, it's the true way forward for cinema. Even The Polar Express was good in IMAX!

Deep Sea is a 40 minute documentary feature that makes the most of its 3D. From the opening shot of a wave headed straight out of the screen to jellyfish fields, giant sea turtles and octopus and a legion of fish varieties and stunning underwater seascapes it does present the world it shows in rarely seen way.

It is only let down by the talking down, over-humanisation of the narration aimed at the kids in the audience, especially from Kate Winslet. Johnny Deppp works better but Winslet sounds like a school-marm talking to a class of four year olds. And the narration has an annoying habit, ala March Of The Penguins, of endowing the animals with human traits to make them easier to associate with for childish minds.

David Attenborough and the BBC make better documentaries as a whole production but you can't fault Deep Sea 3D's visuals and the immersion experience the IMAX format provides. See it for the experience. It is like nothing you've experienced before, the narration really is only a minor annoyance.

This is a good documentary and the shots and coverage of the deep ocean is quite pleasing(and harrowing in places). However, with the advent of instant access to so much content, there isn't anything here that you won't find in better resolution on Netflix or Amazon. Still, if you enjoy documentaries or have even the slightest of fascination with sea life I feel you can spend an hour and some time with Deep Sea.

Like others, I had very high hopes when I heard that Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet would be narrating this IMAX film, and that Danny Elfman would be doing the score. However, I was quite disappointed in those elements that attracted my attention to the movie.

The style of Winslet and Depp's narration might be fine for kids, I suppose, but I found it very irritating. Perhaps I'm brainwashed by decades of authoritative-sounding old men with big voices narrating nature documentaries, but I don't think that's all it is. The narration style here is just silly. And not in a good way (although the way Winslet and Depp voiced the exchange I used as the title of my review did provoke plenty of unintentional(?) laughter, and my girlfriend and I still quote the lines occasionally).

Danny Elfman's score, while not outright bad like the narration, did strike me as overwrought and corny (again, I suppose it's fine if viewed as intended only for young children).

And as another reviewer has also noted, the foley was really over the top in this documentary. The fake squealing vocalizations of the sea creatures was particularly irksome and inappropriate.

The film is still worth watching for the amazing underwater footage, but shots intended to be seen in IMAX 3D don't have the same overwhelming impact on the TV screen.

This is a review of the DVD which, unfortunately, is not in 3D so I am unable to rave about those "effects" as others have here, and was unable to enjoy the film as much as others did at the IMAX theaters.

However, I am not complaining. I still thought the photography was amazing and the colors just spectacular. I've never seen underwater footage this good. This also is the first time I've actually heard the sounds that some of these marine creatures make. I just presumed, like many others, there was mostly silence underneath the surface. That's not so; there are some amazing sounds.

More so, there are some amazing creatures that most of us have never heard about or seen. Some of them are downright weird-looking, repulsive yet fascinating. They are so strange you think you're looking at some animated film with cartoon characters.....but these creatures are real. Some of them are frightening and brutal killers.

I've read complaints about the narration by Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet, and have to agree on a couple points. Winslet does make an attempt to put some reflection in her voice but Depp sounds like he's sleepwalking through this. His voice is flat, a monotone, and it sounds like he's reading the material for the first time. Neither of these two add much life to his documentary.

Others complain that it's just under 40 minutes and thus, the DVD overpriced. Well, not having compared it to the IMAX 3-D experience, I found it very interesting and stunning to view. I wouldn't mind adding it to my collection because this is something I would watch multiple times.