April 7, 2010

I've always been a big fan of IMAX films. My first experience with IMAX movies was in 1985 at Cedar Point amusement park in Northwest Ohio. When I was a kid we went there and one of the attractions was a huge movie theater showing “The Dream is Alive” on a screen bigger than a football field. It was big. Even the sound was big. The teaser boasted that the shuttle launch sequences were at actual sound levels of the real launch. I believed it. It sure seemed like it was true.

Since then the movie landscape has changed significantly. The movie theater experience has now moved into many homes with big screen HDTV and THX certified surround sound systems sounding every bit as good as a real theater – without the fussy kids and talking patrons. Even the IMAX films have made their way to home video – the latest incarnation being high definition Blu-Ray discs.

There is very little to get people back to the theaters. It's about the experience. I don't want to hear people talking, kids fussing, people text messaging and overpriced popcorn being consumed. The only movies I would pay to see are things I can't see at home. That usually comes in the form of huge screens like IMAX or Omnimax, or the latest incarnation of 3D. Thankfully, 70mm IMAX film is far beyond any video resolution we have seen at home. Even older movies like The Dream is Alive are on Blu-Ray now and look even better than I remember. So IMAX movies coming to Blu-Ray in all their glorious resolution and vibrant colors is a great thing for any movie fan.

Filmmaking: 6
I've always subscribed to the Star Trek view of our universe. Space is the “final frontier”. While that may be true, our own oceans certainly can rival the marvels of space, and it's a whole lot easier to get there. Under The Sea was created for IMAX 3D theaters. This Blu-Ray edition is 2D, but given the recent surge in publicity about 3D television coming into the home later this year, I have to wonder if all these movies will be released again in 3D in the near future. In this case I'm not sure how much good it will do for Under The Sea. It's interesting, but there's nothing all that amazing that will jump out at you in 3D.

Under The Sea takes a 41 minute look in the ocean at all kinds of strange and exotic creatures – most of which we have never seen. It's an interesting look at some strange fish, but honestly it's not much better than my aquarium screen saver on my computer. There is no tangible story – just kind of a “let's look in the sea for a few minutes” documentary style film. There's very little action aside from some fish 'getting it on' – which might lead to an interesting conversation the car between parents and kids afterward. Some of the creatures are fascinating but are shown too briefly for any real teaching moments.

The vast majority of IMAX movies are rated G. Under the Sea is no exception but it probably should have been. It's nice to have a movie that you can take the kids to see with all the vibrant colors and weird creatures they have never seen before. It's all good as Jim Carey narrates with a simple message of how we are polluting the ocean and killing the wildlife. But how can you possibly show a Great White Shark just swimming by with only a vague narration about how they sometimes attack stingrays. Everyone in the theater is waiting for this beast to take a chomp out of the stingray, but we see nothing. I guess they didn't want to make the kids have nightmares.

Visuals: 9
Under the Sea boasts a stunning array of colors and clarity. It's an IMAX movie shot on 70mm film so it should look incredible on a Blu-Ray that is 10 times less resolution. The VC-1 encoded 1.85:1 picture clarity is indeed stunning and the detail level, contrast and clarity are all reference quality that would look great for any retail display or home demo. There are no scratches or other film artifacts present. I only wish I could say the same for other aspects of the movie.

Sound: 5
It's difficult to do a decent job with sound on an underwater film. The foley artists had their work cut out for them as did the editors. As with most underwater films, the sound is as the audience would expect – with a few embellishments like the stereotype sound of a kiss when a seal got too close to the camera. In a case of horrible casting, Jim Carey narrates Under the Sea. I guess I had become used to the deep documentary voices of Patrick Stewart and James Earl Jones. Instead we are stuck with Jim Carey's childlike voice which just sounds like he wants to bust out in a comedy routine. The script gives him very little to work with, giving us some already dated lines such as “Dude I can totally see your tail”.

There is very little background music. The producers instead focused on the calming sound of the ocean water and life therein. The slight orchestration is barely noticeable. The film ends with a horrible rendition of the Beatles “Octopus's Garden” by a relative of the soundtrack producer.

Value: 7
It is very unfortunate, that the 7-minute studio produced preview, Filming IMAX: Under The Sea (7:17, HD) is far more interesting than the actual 41-minute movie. This behind the scenes look at the making of the film shows some of the issues they faced, from filming on the open ocean to erupting volcanoes on nearby land. They interact with the natives and deal with the challenges of 6-hour dives with a 3-minute film case. It makes me wonder if this would have been a far better experience as an adventure film – sort of a Jacques Cousteau IMAX adventure seeking out the wonders of the sea.

The disc also includes five webisode featurettes, which are, again, far more interesting than the actual movie.

• Expedition #1 Papau New Guinea – New Britain (1:45)
• Expedition #2 Papau New Guinea – Milne Bay (2:07)
• Expedition #3 South Australia (2:02)
• Expedition #4 The Great Barrier Reef (3:28)
• Expedition #5 Indonesia (2:44)

In all you get about 20 minutes of extras which is not much. It could have been a whole side adventure – follow the filmmakers as they fight Mother Nature and the travel companies to get this film made! But we just got these quick clips that barely touch on the most interesting parts of the film process. The review copy of Under the Sea included just the Blu-Ray of the movie, however some retail versions has DVD and digital copies included.

Overall: 7.3
IMAX: Under The Sea is unfortunately little more than a G rated screen saver. It has vibrant colors and interesting creatures but it pales in comparison to such recent greats as the BBC's Earth series. It's nice to have a film that won't scare the kids to death if they see it in the IMAX theaters, which I'm sure was the point of this film. “Make a movie that shows all the wonder and none of the violence so we can put it in all the museums with IMAX screens”. Well done. I'm glad I didn't have to pay $12 or more to see this on a big screen.