Journey Into Amazing Caves

Four researchers are in Arizona looking into the extreme environment of caves to search for new organisms and new medicines. Nancy Holler Aulenbach is a cave climber specialist. Hazel Barton is collecting biological specimens. She is also on leave as a teaching assistant in a second grade class. She does presentations to the class over the computer. The group travels around the globe.

It's one of those science center movies. It's a second tier production. One of the ladies kept mentioning her husband. She needs to stop that. I like the computer presentations to the kids. The old computers are fun. She should do the ice sliding for the kids to see. That's what they want. They want to see her climbing and crawling inside the caves. All in all, this is fine but nothing special.

My daughter Maria and I were thrilled with so many scenes, especially:

the kayaks plummeting down waterfalls while searching for new caves to explore;

the scary heights of caves in the middle of cliffs only reachable by rappelling and/or crossing rivers by rope many, many feet high up;

descending into ice caverns where you hear the icicles falling and the glacier groaning;

and finally, the holding of our breath as they swam under water through body width openings in search of microorganisms, which was their main goal.

The plane/helicopter rides were breathtaking also - seemingly going to crash you right into the side of a mountain.

Their adventures in Iceland and North America, for the main sake of finding medical cures for the future, will never be forgotten.

(And, if my daughter and wife aren't reading this, the ladies were sure cute, besides being brave, dedicated, athletic and intelligent.)

What a great film! Usually Imax/Omnimax titles put me to sleep, but this one had me on the edge of my seat. Liam Neeson's narration is phenomenal, the soundtrack (featuring the Moody Blues) is haunting and enchanting. You really care about Hazel and Nancy, and the work they're doing. Not to be missed on a domed Omnimax seen, so make sure you see it when it's in your area.

I'm a big fan of IMAX, and this is the best I've seen. Stunning photography, the best shots, the movie is better than "Everest." The "making of" addition is also very compelling, and gives you a good understanding of how dedicated the people who made this movie are.

I went into this movie expecting:

1) Excellent Cinematography worthy of the IMAX format, and

2)amazing caves.

These elements Ruined the film:

-sketchy, condescending, quasi-scientific "plot" (EXTREMOPHILES? give me a break!)

• annoying, unnecessary "characters", poorly developed,

-worst of all, the Moody Blues songs, which were cringe-inducing

throughout. This is good music, and has been for 30 years; but

whoever did the sound for this film is obviously a proud graduate

of the "way too much is almost enough" film school.

The star of this feature should have been the caves, (maybe if you

bring ear-plugs?), but instead we get:

-a spelunking hi-tech internet kindergarden teachers assistant,and

-a daredevil microbiologist, who pays lip service to a hazy

cure-for-all-illnesses pipe dream, but from the tiny amount of real

information about what she is doing, I think she is actually doing

biological weapons research, but doesn't know it. On second

thought, that would be too interesting.

TheTitle of this movie should have been: "ExtremeSports and 'Don't Worry We Hate Geology Even More

Than You Do' Present: The WonderTwins Conquer Cartoon Cavern! Starring the Voice of Liam Neeson! ROCK with the Moody Blues!"