First Hit: Beautifully shot scenes of the ocean and its inhabitants, but overall I didn't connect with a central theme.
Some of the scenes in this film are beyond compare: Whales breaching, ribbon eels moving, birds diving for food, and dolphins jumping. Shots of the furious ocean demonstrating its strength against ships and the coastline juxtaposed to the calm of Monterey Bay where otters lazily fed themselves in the sun.
Life under the surface was shown in many different ways, a burrowing shrimp beating a crab senseless and the power of a great white shark lifting a seal out of the water in its jaws demonstrated various ways sea creatures survive.
But was there a point to all this? The narrator discussed why the ocean needs to be saved. He discussed that through all our exploration of the solar system and in space, we’ve only found one spot that has oceans, our Earth. But, then he goes on to point out places that are still pristine, “untouched” by pollution.
Then, in the next sequence, showed how garbage is collecting in our seas and is killing them. If there was a larger point to this film, I came out of the theater unaware of it. The ocean is a place of wonder and it truly is the instigator of our life on this earth. But maybe because I grew up near and on the water, I’m aware of how we are slowly killing the very thing that brought us life.
This film didn’t seem to make this point strong enough.
Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud co-directed this film. Maybe because there were two directors is why the film seemed to not be clear in making its point. However, these directors did put some amazing footage together.
Overall: The pictures were amazing and it seemed to keep the kids and adults in the theater interested and very engaged.