Journey Into Amazing Caves

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.

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 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!

The scenery is breathtaking, the explorer/scientists brave and adventurous. What "Journey Into Amazing Caves" does is take viewers on an excursion to several caves -- virtually impossible to reach, in some cases never before seen by the human eye caves, spectacularly remote caverns tucked away in some of the Earth's most extreme landscapes. And they do it not so much for the joy of the journey as for, potentially, the benefit of mankind.

The theory behind these grand, yes life-threatening expeditions is that if organisms that can live in the earth's least friendly enviornments, if they can thrive despite extreme heat or cold or other hideously harsh conditions, they might well provide clues to cures for human disease.

The name for these extraordinarily hearty organisms is "extremeophiles," and the "stars" of "Journey Into Amazing Caves" set about reaching and collecting samples of these admirable little forms of life, from caves cut into the walls of the desert mountains of Arizona, and the ice caps of Greenland, and the deep seas and lagoons of the Yucatan Penninsula of Mexico.

At minimum, "Amazing Caves" is a collection of glorious moving-picture postcards, the likes of which you surely have never seen. At best, it is an inspirational look at some amazing feats that humans accomplish in order to fulfill, well, curiosity.

As the credits rolled today when I saw this film, the audience cheered. Take yourself on an expedition this summer, see planet Earth as you've not seen it before, give yourself something to cheer, go see this movie.

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.