Life, l'aventure de la vie

Despite how much he apparently dislikes the term "national treasure", that term really does sum up David Attenborough to a tee. He is such a great presenter (in his 90s and still sounds, and looks on a side note, great) and whenever a new series of his is aired they are often among the best the BBC has done in years.

Am a great fan of a lot of Attenborough's work and BBC's nature documentaries with his involvement are among their best work in years. Have been watching the BBC less over time, but there are always exceptions, unexpected gems and expected treasures that come our way every now and again and their nature documentaries are the perfect examples of expected treasures. 'Life' is a crowning achievement for a documentary series and actually, like the best documentary shows, feels much more than that. As far as Attenborough's work goes too, 'Life' to me is one of his biggest achievements.

'Life' is an exceptionally well-made series first and foremost, in fact saying that doesn't do the production values justice. It is gorgeously filmed, done in a completely fluid and natural, sometimes intimate (a great way of connecting even more with the animals), way and never looking static. In fact much of it is remarkably cinematic. The editing is always succinct and smooth and the scenery and various habitats are remarkably diverse and look speechlessly spectacular.

On a documentary level, 'Life' continually fascinates and illuminates, while there are some familiar facts here a lot of it was very much new (like a lot of the principles of evolution) and by the end of the series for me more was gotten out of it, and educated me much more than, anything taught when studying Geography in secondary school. Attenborough's narration helps quite significantly too, he clearly knows his stuff and knows what to say and how to say it. He delivers it with his usual richness, soft-spoken enthusiasm and sincerity, never talking down to the viewer and keeping them riveted and wanting to know more.

The wildlife and life-forms are both adorable and dangerous, the wide-ranging diversity of what was included was staggering and it was lovely to see a mix of the familiar and the not-so-familiar. How they adapt to their environments, why they behave the way they do, how nature works and how what the wildlife and life-forms do affects their environments were all touched upon and made their points subtly, not hammering it home too much (a potential danger with documentaries).

Many powerful and poignant moments, as well as suspenseful ones, while not trying too hard to evoke a viewer reaction. One really cares for what they're told and the wildlife. Each episode doesn't feel like an episodic stringing of scenes, but instead like the best nature documentaries each feels like their own story and journey, with real, complex emotions and conflicts and animal characters developed in a way a human character would in a film but does it better than several.

Overall, a crowning achievement, for Attenborough and nature documentaries in general. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Overall good but far from great. My biggest issues were varied starting with most of this has been filmed and covered by bbc in past nature docs. My second issue was with Oprahs narrating. It was almost robotic with rarely any excitement on her part. Very unlike Attenborough who nails it every time and is very emotive. A big thing that took me right out of the doc was watching on BluRay the cuts to the commercial breaks were very very obvious. It's something I've never noticed in any of their nature docs and I've seen most repeatedly. Last complaint was a lack predation and a definite lack of showing the gore.

Another gorgeous and illuminating nature documentary to add to the list, Life focusses on the anatomical, behavioural and tactical adaptations that lifeforms have devised to survive and thrive. Instead of a geographical basis, the series is divided up into ten episodes that each focusses on a separate class such as fish, birds, mammals and so on. This choice of episodic organization throws light on the commonalities between members of these classes while also highlighting the diversity that exists within them. There is also an episode centred on plants, an uncommon subject of nature documentaries, and another shining a spotlight on predator-prey interactions.

Like most productions of the BBC Natural History Unit, Life is a cinematographic treat. We journey to scenic locations all over the world, with habitats ranging from frigid ice caps to arid deserts, dense jungles to verdant grasslands, dark caves to deep seas. The film crews devise innovative methods to capture natural behaviours and wildlife encounters in unprecedented detail, and this series is a fitting reward for all their patience and hard work. The end-of-episode Life on Location segments give the audience an insightful peek at the travails and collaborative effort necessary to make such elaborate filming ventures successful. The music score is also very good as are the foley effects necessary to lend realism to the filmed scenes, and the narration by David Attenborough is wonderful as always.

The series also provides one many emotional moments and gets the audience invested into the storytelling. Predator-prey conflicts, familial bonding, courtship and mating rituals, territorial disputes, food hunts ... these are all different settings portrayed in the series in which we may find ourselves rooting for one party or another. Symbiotic relationships and communal ties are also illustrated to show how cooperative strategies can also succeed.

In conclusion, Life is a must-watch timeless documentary for any Nature lover.

I was expecting this film to have a creationist slant, but it does not. It is a bit like David Attenborough for children. It has first class nature photography, but it is aimed at children with a dumbed-down narration by Oprah Winfrey and somewhat Disneyfied music. It sometimes has an odd prudishness about fish reproduction.

The creatures chosen are each bizarre and entertaining but ones I have seen before.

Some of the principles of evolution are presented, but in a subtle way. The focus is on strange animal behaviour, not how it could have evolved. I learned something new, that the schooling behaviour of anchovies is indeed very effective against predators.

It is not totally prettified. It shows flamingo chicks that died after they fell out of the nest.

I think the insect segment was most interesting with the most material I had not seen before. The jousting tournament with the surprise ending really tickled me.

There are bits of Disneyesque anthropomorphising, for example talking of insects "fighting for their dignity".

This is first rate family entertainment. I am ready to see it again already.

Great documentary. I cannot say anything negative of this, it was simply amazing