To the Arctic 3D

Through masterful and patient cinematography and editing, the movie documents a compelling story of survival. I was very much invested and fearful for the mother and her cubs, who were under the constant threat of attack by desperately hungry adult male bears, who were unable to otherwise feed themselves due to the effects of man's environmental recklessness on their habitat. Being a native IMAX movie, the picture quality is superb - way better than, say, Planet Earth or Arctic Tale. The presentation, the aerial shots, and the way the cameras take the viewer on the bears' journey is amazing. As for music, in addition to the Paul McCartney songs, there's also some beautiful original score by Steve Wood. Particularly the delicate celestial track that was also used on the Bluray's home menu screen gave me goosebumps. It's worth noting that a very tiny segment features footage shot using a remote controlled robotic digital camcorder, which (at the obvious expense of image quality) was able to capture the kind of up-close action that would've been impossible to get using the bulky and precious IMAX camera. However, rather than blow those scenes up to fill the entire screen, the movie has the honesty to put them in a sort of small ice-themed frame in the center, as if to say: "Look folks, these are some cool bits that we had to include but we're not by any means trying to pass them as 65mm film". This is something I came to appreciate having watched Hubble 3D, a movie where the vast majority of the non-CGI parts are cheap consumer camcorder footage (Am I watching an IMAX 3D movie or a reality TV show?). Anyway, if you love having your HD screen filled edge-to-edge with gorgeous full 16:9 65/70mm IMAX shots, you absolutely need to own To the Arctic 3D on Bluray.

The flick begins by mentioning that polar bears resulted from brown bears (grizzly bears) migrating to the Arctic and adapting to that environment, a theory that comports with accepted thinking. Unfortunately, the idea that polar bears might migrate south and re-adapt to a different climate totally escapes the biased story-line developer. Never have I heard such misguided and erroneous information about anthropogenic global warming and the plight of a subspecies. That said, the photography was exceptionally good in part. While providing a glimpse into the life of polar bears, the focus on their supposed plight became tedious and boring. Minor and limited photography of other wildlife and sea creatures was of interest if you can forget the overall bias. I have to wonder how the story-line might be altered if presented from the point of view of the seal - a primary source of food for the bear as presented by the flick. I also continue to ask myself the question, "Does Ms. Streep have the slightest clue why Greenland is so named when 80% is covered in ice today?". I certainly enjoyed much of the photography, though the film dragged at times and the bias caused attention to drag.

Seeing 'To the Arctic 3D' was never going to be in any doubt. Have loved nature documentaries for a long time, have always loved learning about polar bears and they are always interesting in every documentary they feature in and although the Arctic is a familiar documentary location there is always something new to learn about it. Do appreciate anything with some kind of message, regardless of how they are eventually executed. Meryl Streep has proven many times that she can narrate beautifully.

'To the Arctic 3D' has a lot to like about it. It is never going to be one of my favourite nature documentaries and to me there are better polar bear documentaries around and better IMAX documentaries around. It is still worth watching if one wants to see as many polar bear documentaries and IMAX ones as well (the latter ones have been interesting watches but variable ones too, this is neither among the best or worst). Nothing really is done terribly, though one aspect does bring things down by quite a lot, but the flaws are again uneven. It is not one of the best nature documentaries out there or a milestone, but it is not one of the worst either.

Am going to start with the good things. The production values are absolutely impeccable all round. This is another fine example of an environment that is exquisite to look at but very harsh with its challenges, photographed vividly and beautifully. The polar bears look absoluely ravishing up close and a lot is learnt about them and it is stuff that is illuminating rather than repeating already known facts.

Furthermore, the way it is told is touching and doesn't hold back. The narration is delivered beautifully. The polar bears are truly fascinating and very easy to relate to in all kinds of situations. The music on its own is nice. Did think that the message was admirable and it is a relevant and important issue and still needs to be addressed.

On the other hand, there are things that could have been done better in 'To the Arctic 3D'. Did feel that it could have made its points with a lot more subtlety, as it is rather heavy-handed and also on the one-sided side. All doom and gloom and not much hope, and it does unbalance the film in my view. As said the music is nice on its own but is used too much and doesn't gel stylistically, a gentler tone was needed.

While Streep narrates beautifully, the narration is on the underused side. The IMAX doesn't look cheap but in my mind it wasn't needed and the film feels too short.

Concluding, not great and inconsistent but a lot impresses and the intentions are noble. 6/10.

This documentary film is about the life of wild polar bears residing in the Arctic.

Though it is just under 40 minutes long, "To The Arctic" transports us to an unfamiliar world where the landscape is just barren ice and snow. The landscape is beautiful, and the only life forms we see are polar bears. Filming the polar bears curiously exploring the camouflaged camera was a nice touch, as it was funny and provided a light touch to the documentary. The scene where mama polar bear protects her cubs from the other polar bear is tense and thrilling as well. However, it would have been good to have more educational elements as well. As it stands currently, it is more like a collection of footage of polar bears rather than a complete educational documentary.

Here are 3 things that lost this exceptionally well-photographed, IMAX presentation some very serious points.

(1) It contained some really pathetic, "grate-on-your-nerves" songs from 71-year-old, pop icon (and former-Beatle), Paul McCartney.

(2) Its phone-in narration (which was absolutely "dry-as-a-bone") was lifelessly delivered by veteran actress, Meryl Streep.

(3) This "message" documentary also got a bit out of hand when it came to driving home the point that it was, indeed, all man's fault for being the one who was creating all of the greenhouse gases that were causing global warming to accelerate (which, in turn, was destroying the arctic environment for polar bears and other such cold-climate wildlife).

But, on the other hand - There certainly was some very outstanding camera-work done in this documentary whose story traced the journey of a mother polar bear and her two, 7-month-old cubs as they bravely navigated their way across the ever-changing arctic wilderness.