Image Courtesy of Amazon.com
Director:
Andy Byatt
Alastair Fothergill
Cast:
Pierce Brosnan……….Narrator
The Movie
Nature documentaries come a dime a dozen, as there’s always a documentary on cable about some aspect of nature and wildlife on at almost all times of the day. Heck, March of the Penguins just won an Academy Award because emperor penguins are cuter than cripples playing rugby.
Deep Blue came and went in 2003 without too much fanfare, bombing badly at a box office not quite ready for 90 minutes of nature. With US narration from Pierce Brosnan, the film is breath-taking mess of epic proportions.
It’s not that the family isn’t pretty or doesn’t focus on nature. It does so relentlessly, showing us nature in all its glory in the oceans. Andy Byatt and Alastair Fothergill break have assembled a lot of great footage from their time filming, showing us nature’s glory in spectacular manner. There are plenty of great shots and lots of long, developed sequences that are nearly hypnotic. This is a great looking film, for sure, as the cinematography and editing are something special.
The problem with the film is that it just shows a lot of these great shots, with a few blurbs from narrator Brosnan, but doesn’t ever tell any sort of story other than “isn’t nature cool looking?” with its hour and half running time. There’s never a story to be told, just assembled shots and vague sentences most times. There are times when Brosnan narrates a sequence of events and it forms a bit of story, but then it jumps to something else for no rhyme or reason.
Overall, it’s a delightful experience for the eyes and ears but not for the thing that connects them. It’s got everything that made March of the Penguins a monster hit, relatively speaking, except a story that ties it all together.
Score : 6 / 10
The Video
Presented in a widescreen with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, the film’s transfer takes full advantage and is brimming with life. Nature has never looked this good or enveloping, as the colors are vivid and crisp.
The Audio
Presented in a Dolby 5.1 surround format, the DVD also sounds great too. A lot of attention was paid into making this and it shows. The sound is crisp and well separated.
The Extras
The Making of Deep Blue is a “making of” featurette focusing on how they made the movie. It is almost a movie in and of itself, running around 50 minutes, and it’s absolutely fascinating to see the sheer amount of work and ingenuity that went into the film. How the movie was filmed is fascinating as the directors and crew found a lot of interesting ways and things to do in order to cover their subjects. It’s fairly in depth look at how the film was made; it is a bit disjointed with a fuzzy narrative, as it jumps from bit to bit rather sporadically.
Score : 7.5 / 10
