TORONTO, Canada (13 Feb 2009) — Constrained by cost and a more-or-less carved-in-stone running time, IMAX movies have only occasionally managed to get past the notion that they're spectacle (albeit great spectacle) without substance. A good example of one that did: Volcanoes of the Deep, Stephen Low's 2003 look at "ocean vent" lifeforms that dovetailed with a scientific revolution in the possible mediums of evolution. That movie became more than a look at life around a volcanic vent miles below the sea. It became a movie of an idea, a graphic snapshot of how life could evolve on other planets. At the other end of the meaningfulness scale is the just-released Under the Sea 3D, a movie that exists for no other purpose than to show off cute and so-ugly-they're-cute creatures that exist in the coral-reef triangle between the North and South of Australia and New Guinea. In fact, they're all creatures from the unfulfilled "wish list" of director Howard Hall's last IMAX movie, Deep Sea. This is a film that's so directly aimed at an audience of young children, that when a group of sea lions approaches the camera curiously, and one gets its snout right up to the lens, a loud "smooch" sound is heard on the soundtrack. Let me hear you say, "Awwwww!" The camera pretty much takes up residence on the ocean floor, 70 feet or so below the surface. There the No. 1 rule is, what looks like a rock or a bumpy part of the sand is probably something waiting to eat something else in one quick snap. There are stonefish and dragon fish, cuttlefish and weird crabs, fauna that looks like flora, and literally millions of colourful little fishies that double as meals and as phantom objects for kids to grab at, thanks to the effectiveness of the 3D. (Yes, they still use glasses. Yes, if you already wear glasses, it's a major pain -- one that will probably start in your temples and work its way to your frontal lobe.) Jim Carrey narrates jauntily, but without jokes -- at least none worth mentioning. And as if someone remembered halfway through that the movie should be about something, a global warming message pops up out of nowhere. Carbon dioxide overload is acidifying the coral reefs. The movie even ends with what amounts to a hopeful homily about global-warming awareness having finally taken hold, and the stage being set for us all to agree on action to be taken. Apparently, none of the writers of Under the Sea 3D has ever read the op-ed page of the National Post. | | Trading on intellectually vapid spectacle that goes nowhere while insulting the intelligence of children older than age six: Howard Hall What makes this serious message seem all the more tacked-on is the fact that none of these destroyed ecosystems and dead coral reefs are on offer. Under the Sea 3D ends as it begins, in a literal sea of colour and life (and neat-and-tidy death), like an aquarium video with much higher definition. In 3D. Younger children will be engrossed. Older ones may get bored. by JIM SLOTEK |
