Les Mondes extraterrestres

6/10. Some neat visuals and interesting ideas sandwiched between padding that is borderline off-topic.

It's incredible just how far this documentary seems to miss the mark. Yes, there are about 2 - 3 minutes worth of fabulous effects shots and maybe 5 minutes worth of talk about how alien life might actually develop on alien worlds, but each episode is about 40 - 45 minutes long. What is this padded with?

How to film rhinocerous beetles having sex. Uh-huh. Interesting. Not why I'm here though.

Watch me go paragliding! Okay, really not why I'm here.

5 minutes talking in very general terms about how we discover exoplanets. Okay, at least related to alien planets.

4 minutes of a falconer training a falcon. What the... ARE YOU EVEN TRYING TO MAKE A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT SCIENTIFIC THEORY ON THE TYPES OF LIFE THAT MIGHT DEVELOP ON ALIEN WORLDS!!?? I mean, I like falcons and all, but again... and I cannot stress this enough... that's not why I'm here.

There's some neat stuff in here, so it's not a total wash, but the padding, oh my the padding. I mean, some of the padding is interesting, but it's so off premise, I have to wonder why they just didn't make a series of 4 - 10 minute mini documentaries called "Neat Things on Earth."

For a documentary in theory set on alien planet it focus half of time on vanity shots of Earth people, instead of filling that time explaining how would be posible the life shown. In that way, the 2005 show from National Geographic, although not so visually stunning, was a much better documentary.

75% of each episode goes on what's happening in earth. And they show one cgi scene for 4-5 times. If wanna hear about earth and species here would have just watch NatGeo. Disappointing. So much for something called AliEn WoRlDs

It is an undoubtedly fascinating hypothetical visualisation of what unique alien ecosystems might look like on other planets - if we apply our current understanding of the basic principles of life to otherworldly environments. That said, given the show's clear budgetary limitations (despite the impressive CGI) & the over reliance on repeated shots, they manage to competently make the best content imaginable with the limited resources they clearly have at their disposal.

That's why so much focus is shifted on to Earth, hosting interviews with experts giving expository information; the creators aren't simply justifying the theoretical realisations featured on screen but they're also clearly filling the run time - which would otherwise be vacant if the directors planned on featuring additional sequences elsewhere in these constructs.

Unfortunately, like in the headline said, this documentary is more about the life of single human-beings and their professions instead of alien life.

Maybe 40% of the documentary is about the real (how could it be) alien life. But the 60% rest of every and each episode is about a human being who does something in chemistry, biology or physics to explain behaviour of (alien) life.

CGI was awsome and it was an interesting series, but i wanted a whole documentary about extrasolar life, not about life on earth and the life of some individuals.