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.

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.

I checked this DVD out from my local public library thinking it would be a great documentary on the Arctic. Well, there are some great images, but the overall production/direction is almost too distracting. Paul McCartney added some music for the score, and much of the time, it distracts the viewer rather than adds to the experience.

And instead of presenting the content and allowing the viewer to draw their own conclusions, in my opinion the film goes too far in trying to emotionally manipulate regarding climate change and its effect on the animals of the Arctic.

Argh...

I'll be straight up honest I only went to watch this movie for the IMAX experience while I was visiting a museum. The images were definitely huge, though I was expecting better image quality. As far as image quality goes, I actually later enjoyed image quality of the trailer on youtube in 1080p HD more than that of the actual movie. Admittedly the giant screen does have it's impressive charm though and you can blame my disappointment on my ignorance of IMAX movies.

As far as the movie goes it was pretty average though that doesn't exactly mean it was that bad. You got to see cool landscapes, and learn about the wildlife. I'm pretty sure the impression I have right now is exactly as the filmmakers intended; fascinated by the Arctic and sympathetic to the polar bears. I was disappointed at first, but in retrospect it was a decent made film, I was just expecting more than you can typically see on Animal Planet. It was also rather short. I also wish the environmental message was more subtle than it actually was.

One thing I have to complement about the movie is the soundtrack. It was pretty good, in my initial disappointment I don't think I expected to be later searching for the songs online.

In the end I give it a 5/10

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.