Journey Into Amazing Caves

By far the most involving IMAX movie ever. It takes you to some of the most far-reached and hazardous place on Earth and makes you feel like you are actually there.

(Enough with the corny stuff and on with the good part)

This documentary not only educates, but takes upon itself to share with the audience the passion, the danger, and the excitement of extreme speleology. A task that is accomplished in one swift stroke. The voyage takes us with experts Hazel Barton and Nancy Aulenbach to rocky caves in the Grand Canyon, icy caves in the Groenland and underwater caves in the tropics, in search of "extremophiles" (meaning love of the extreme), which are microorganisms which reside in once thought to be inhabitable habitats.We soon understand that they are themselves extremophiles, as they deeply love what they do and are always ready to embark on one perilous mission after the other. They risk their lives on numerous occasions and show courage and devotion in the name of science... and hey, because it's a lot of fun!!

The camera work is impeccable and makes maximum use of the IMAX technology to immerse the viewer in the fantastic experience. The directing is of high quality and creates a mood, a feel and a pace that keeps you captivated throughout. Stephen Judson, the director, utilize all the tools to make you part of what happens and make you understand the drive and desire that push those people to such limits. They come up with a perfect mixture of wonder, learning, adventure and tension.

The aesthetic composition of the visual arrangements recaptures admirably the natural splendor of the exotic surroundings. The flowing narration is combined with sincere and appropriate dialog (I don't think there exists one superfluous comment in the whole movie)

From beginning to end the feature never falters, and when you start to feel the fantastic journey skillfully build to the ending, you are suddenly struck with fondness and admittedly yearn for more. That's when it gets even better! It ends perfectly.

To see in original IMAX projection, preferably.

I loved this film! It was beautiful and interesting and lasted just long enough to keep me satisfied and never, ever bored. The scenery and cave footage certainly did not disappoint. This film takes the average viewer to incredible places they would never experience first-hand. Quite amazing and I recommend it. It is only 40 minutes long but worth every minute in my humble opinion. I didn't feel cheated by the shorter length- it felt just right. This film also gave me a deeper appreciation for the people who embark on these missions to collect samples that otherwise would not make it to the research lab. Wow! Amazing that they can get the footage of these places. I did enjoy the music too. I hope to see more shows like this one!

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!"

I first saw this IMAX film in Sydney on my trip down under. Not only was it amazing to see some of the most beautiful footage on a screen that is over 8 stories high, but the story was also very interesting to me. It had some incredible climbing scenes...112F in the Grand Canyon, 500' down into ice caves in Greenland, Bats in Georgia, and underwater cave diving in the Yucatan. It not only deals with the sport of caving, but one of the ladies in the film is a micro-biologists who is collecting rare extremophiles, microorganisms that live in extremely harsh environments, for scientific research. It was narrated by Liam Neeson with music by The Moody Blues. I bought it on DVD, knowing it would lose a lot visually going from the IMAX screen to my TV. I'm glad I did, because it has a "making of" documentary that was just as interesting as the IMAX movie, showing both the technical aspects of what went into the shoot as well as the personal side of those involved.