National Parks Adventure

If you are interested in watching insufferable, privileged white people tooling around in a Subaru and treating the national parks like their personal hipster playground, this film is for you.

Generally speaking if you enjoy films from the Banff film festival you will probably enjoy this one. Gorgeous scenery, a personal story, and a general overview of the parks.

I stumped-up full price to see this 50 minute film expecting to see a documentary on the National Parks. Some of the shots were jaw-dropping: Grand Prismatic Lake and the Grand Canyon in particular. However, these kinds of vistas were few and far between. I was treated to the sight (in 3D & IMAX) of three people sitting inside of their car having a singalong, a girl balancing on a rope and a guy climbing 30 or 40 feet up a frozen waterfall. Instead of concentrating on this group's journey, and the fun time they had mountain biking, I would have liked to have seen more of the Parks of Utah. No mention of the Blue Ridge or Natchez Parkways either. The whole film struck me as a wasted opportunity to showcase the beauty and diversity of the National Parks. 4 stars for the truly impressive shots of the parks (which are not long enough anyway).

I was disappointed. I went to the IMAX 3D theater expecting to see something immersive like Hubble or Deep Sea. Sorry - not even close. 50% or so was not even shot in 3D (are they trying to kid us?). The entire Redwood and Yellowstone scenes, all historic reenacting, and most of the "three guys on road trip" scenes are 2D only. Why? Letting apart the extremely well shot ice palace and some river shots, the best 3D footage was probably the historic 3d still photos.

Ok, there are some stunning areal shots (however naturally not well suited for 3D immersion).

Aside from the photography, the story and timeline is a mess, plus we see a crowd of young fun seekers treating nature and indigeneous sanctuaries without any respect.

If you are a 3D enthusiast watch any other IMAX short or Avatar (1/2). If you want a nature documentary, watch BBC's planet earth instead.

While the scenery and cinematography were quite breathtaking, this 45 minute documentary lacked direction. The doc somewhat follows a group of people as they trek around a few national parks. I felt the special could have done better to highlight more parks and stuck to the history and general info, the people weren't necessary.