Showing posts with label nature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nature. Show all posts

4/17/2012

Equator 1: Power Of An Ocean (As seen on Discovery HD & Animal Planet) (2009) Review

Equator 1: Power Of An Ocean (As seen on Discovery HD and Animal Planet) (2009)
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Picture quality well below average at places. Disc has two main subjects: Palmyra atoll in the pacific and Galapagos Islands. The coconut crab sequence (Palmyra atoll) very nice, but the Galapagos sequences dissappointing, especially if you have already watched "Galapagos" with Tilda Swinton. Disc not recommended on account of the really bad picture quality at places.

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11/30/2011

North America's National Parks (As Seen In IMAX Theaters) Review

North America's National Parks (As Seen In IMAX Theaters)
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(Please note that English is not my native language.)
Good:
Obviously, it's about national parks, and contains really impressive footage, well chosen and thought-out shots.
Most footage is high-definition. Time-lapse effect (everything is sped-up) is nicely used to improve dynamics or point out changes occuring in nature.
Bad:
There are absolutely no sounds from nature - entire presentation is drowned in background music (of acceptable quality, though) and narration.
There are no animals and insects visible (except some unrecognizable, small dark birds in background), which somehow makes the whole film look empty and unnatural. I get that not everyone likes spiders or snakes, including myself... but weren't there any ladybugs or butterflies? Wild cats? Squirrels? What about endangered species like wolves? In all the national parks of all the north America, there is not a single animal worth mentioning and filming?
Narration is less than impressive consisting mostly of empty phrases like "timeless beauty inspires spirit to be spiritually spiritual". Nothing is said about geology, botanics, climate, why do these factors combine at these places in such ways to make them so attractive and colorful. It is said, though, that "Death Valley is a desert and has a desert climate... Mount Rainier is a mountain and has a mountain climate... rain forest gets lots of rain".
There is a mysterious fade to black transition every few minutes for no particular reason (except to insert commercials, I suppose, if this material is sold to someone interested adding them).
Ugly:
Some scenes are shot with standard-definition camera, the difference is really noticable, for the worse. Some scenes are shot with unknown-definition camera which is badly out of focus.
Some high-definition shots are made with camera with dirty lenses and the dirt is there through several shots. Not the little drops or water or something that can be accepted as "part of nature"... just some irregular dirt, fingerprints or something...
Some shots are made with 24 fps and poorly, causing bad stuttering, "upscaled" to 30 fps.
Something strange happened in editing process, so at the left side there is about 1 inch of empty black space. The width of black bar is not constant throughout the film.
Some scenes have weird pink stripe at bottom, looking as malfunctioning camera.

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11/29/2011

Timeless... A National Parks Odyssey (IMAX) (2004) Review

Timeless... A National Parks Odyssey (IMAX) (2004)
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I agree with other reviewers that the images and music are gorgeous. The landscapes are breathtakingly beautiful. Yet I want other buyers to realize what I didn't: many of the scenes are filmed with time-lapse photography. In other words, the clouds and shadows move across the landscape in accelerated motion. Some viewers will like this pace and won't mind that the naturally inspiring landscape has been altered. But for me, this created a sense of hurry and hectic rushing through time instead of the simplicity and calm of a real-time cinescape. Some of the chapters are presented at normal speed. These are the ones I find most enjoyable, and I only wish the talents who created this had let the natural beauty and their skills stand alone. Many will enjoy this film as it is. I had expected a simpler version of nature.

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Item Name: Timeless... A National Parks Odyssey (IMAX); Studio:Razor Digital Entertainment

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11/09/2011

Ocean Oasis (IMAX) Blu-ray (2008) Review

Ocean Oasis (IMAX) Blu-ray (2008)
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I work in the AV Services department of the San Diego Natural History Museum, and this is our destination film. I have seen this movie on 8/70, DVD, and now Blu-ray well over 50 times from beginning to end.
As this movie was created for our museum, its a wheee bit hard to give an objective description. However, if you like nature documentaries, especially of the sea, you will probably enjoy this a great deal. Even more so if you live in or enjoy California or Mexico.
If you own the DVD: Get the Blu-ray. The DVD version is.... not so hot (at least the ones I've seen). The Blu-ray looks fantastic. Not as good as a 8/70mm film print (which is significantly more detail than a 35mm you would see at most theaters), but for the home market, pretty darn close.
As a note to the previous reviewer: yes, for some odd annoying reason, the subtitles in English are enabled by default. They can be disabled (just not in the setup menu of the movie). You will need to be playing the movie and toggle through the subtitle options (English, Dutch, German, Mandarin, Swedish, and None).
Now if they would just release the main theme as a song for Guitar Hero.....

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8/15/2011

Australia: Land Beyond Time (IMAX) (2004) Review

Australia: Land Beyond Time (IMAX)  (2004)
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Extraordinary panoramic vistas, taken from a 2-engine plane with a camera attached to its nose, amazing geological facts, and marvelous animals, most of them unique to Australia, are what we get in this superb documentary of what is both the world's smallest continent, and its largest island. Once joined to Antarctica many millions of years ago, with high mountains and lush forests, time transformed Australia into 3 million square miles of mostly arid flat land, and its creatures adapted to the different weather conditions. Fabulous and often amusing footage of kangaroos and koalas (both share the same ancestral marsupial possum), as well as desert creatures from ants to the giant and fearsome parenti lizard, and the "living contradiction," the platypus, are among the many delights shown in this film.
An event that only occurs approximately twice every century, torrential rains filling the Outback's Lake Eyre, bringing long dormant animals to life, as well as flocks of pelicans, is caught on film, and is a spectacular sight. This is a glorious but harsh land, with a strange beauty that fills the soul. Australia is described as being more like another planet than another country, and this documentary has many images rarely seen.
Directed by David Flatman, written by Flatman, Meg Morrison, and poet Les Murray, it is narrated by Alex Scott, and has a lovely score by David Bridie. Made for IMAX in 2002, every aspect of "Australia, Land Beyond Time" is excellent, is a must for anyone interested in this great country, and those of us who like to explore foreign lands without leaving home.


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