A film review by Craig J. Koban |
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EARTH
A documentary written and directed by Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield. Narrated by James Earl Jones. |
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The “story” of EARTH is
told with the usually imposing and authoritative inflections of the great
James Earl Jones, and that alone should merit positive results.
Alas, the more the film progressed the more his words felt like an
irritant and distraction: Just
imagine the type of ethereal impact that this film would have if were told
without a human presence throughout it.
If handled this way, EARTH
would have certainly attained a level of transcending awe that
would have done justice to its visual magnificence.
To be fair, EARTH is an
absolutely titanic-sized motion picture:
Five years in the making, 4500 days in the field at over 200
locations, which included over 250 days of aerial photography alone (that
is a stupendous feat, to be sure). The
budget for this incredible effort was $45 million, easily making it the
single most expensive documentary ever conceived.
Contrary to widely held belief, EARTH is definitely not a
Disney production (despite a heavy handed preponderance of advertising for
the film which falls under the studios new Disneynature brand); it was
actually a UK-German co-production that was released, to large critical
and box office acclaim, in Great Britain in 2007.
Disney's interest in securing the rights to release this film
stateside has ties to the studio’s past, not to mention some obvious
financial motives. Between
the late 40’s and early 60’s Disney won several Oscars for its “True
Life Adventures” documentaries, whihc were critical and audience hits,
so it’s no small wonder why Disney felt that returning to the nature
well, so to speak, would be a good move. EARTH is also not a
stand-alone feature film, but rather a companion piece to the 2006
BBC/Discover Channel series PLANET EARTH (anyone out there that inanely
doubts why Blu-ray is vastly superior to standard-def DVD needs to watch
this series on the superior hi-def format).
EARTH uses many of the same sequences in the TV series, but
conveniently edits them in a different form.
Employing the latest in high definition and 35mm cameras and – as
the makers are very quick to point out – using not one frame of CGI
augmentation, EARTH certainly deserves accolades as a dazzling, eye
popping spectacle and a landmark achievement.
But – gee whiz – they just had to have the likes of James Earl
Jones lending his vocal talent to give human traits to the animals
presented in the film, which sort of taints the overall effect.
Now, clearly there is a need for the film to relay specific
information, but I think that the wiser choice would have been to simply
use well placed text and subtitles adjacent to the imagery.
And for that matter, why did Disney feel the need to replace
Patrick Stewart (the narrator of the BBC version)?
Is he not well known enough for American consumption?
This is an odd choice. Nonetheless, EARTH is, as
stated, a tour de force of unbelievably gorgeous camera work.
It depicts both the diversity of wild animals and creatures –
large and small – across the planet as well as the impediments to their
future survival. Directors
Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield (both of whom worked on PLANET
EARTH) ultimately decide to focus the film's attention to a full year’s
cycle on the planet that begins in the Arctic circle and travels all over
the globe. To streamline
things even more, the pair distils EARTH in three distinct
storylines following the lives of polar bears, dolphins, and humpback
whales. We first meet up with
the bears, which emerge after a very long hibernation, as the mother tries
to accustom her young to the natural world around them. Papa bear, on the other hand, has a real threat when it’s
revealed that the escalating melting of the ice sheets greatly impedes his
ability to get food. We then
see elephant herds migrating to the floodwaters of the Okavango Delta, all
while being sought after by ravenous and salivating lions (they are a bit
cruelly painted as bad guys here). Finally,
we meet up with two whales that are trying to make the enormously long
trip from their tropical waters to Antarctica feeding grounds. Predictably, we also see many more species as they intersect
with the “main characters” of EARTH (like, for example, walruses,
baboons, wolves, sharks, lynxes, and many more). EARTH has so many moments of
jaw-dropping magnificence that describing them all would be fruitless.
Yes, the film professes to use no “visual effects”, but it
still uses everyday Hollywood tricks, like tracking shots, slow
motion, dissolves, image juxtaposition, and aerial and time-lapse photography, the
latter being some of the most accomplished and spectacular I’ve ever
seen (just look at the sequence where the North American woodlands are
transformed in seconds from snow to water droplets to orchids of
daffodils). Even more
time-lapse is used to show seasonal changes across the globe and, in other
instances, give us a more intimate look at vast environmental occurrences
(like the massive clouds the sweep up the Himalayan mountains) and, in
more interesting sections, show the growth of jungle spores and fungi.
Seriously, this is fascinating stuff. One sequence alone is worth
mentioning for its radiance: We see a truly remarkable scene of a
six-plumed bird of paradise performing its mating dance that becomes
something almost hypnotically alluring.
The sheer diversity of the bird life on display here from the New
Guinea rainforest is staggering.
On the larger side of things, spectacular shots of African
elephants are filmed in the Kalahari Desert and, in one unforgettable
moment, a band of tigers all gang up on one elephant in an attempt to turn
him into lunch (no easy feat, even for a multitude of meat-hungry adversaries).
Some individual moments even have a sadness to them, as in one
touching scene where a polar bear is nearly stranded at sea and barely
makes it ashore where he becomes so desperate for food that he gathers up
enough courage to attack a whole heard of walruses (which, as the film
wisely points out, are not as helpless as we think they are).
If there was one shot that took my proverbial breath away then I
would have to call a tie: The
first shows great white sharks – in super, super slo-mo –
flying out of the oceans and into the air while swallowing its aquatic
prey whole. The other
involves a next-to-impossible aerial shot of Demoiselle cranes during
their migration across the Himalayas; there are so many of these birds
occupying the frame that they almost, from afar, resemble a vast cloud
formation - it is one of the most miraculous sequences ever captured on
film. Again, the film works best
when viewers are allowed to simply stare at the screen and drink in all of
its visual dynamism. James
Earl Jones always brings a level of gravitas to just about any part, but
the material he is saddled with here is decidedly of the lame variety,
certainly so much so that it's sometimes embarrassing for the revered
actor. What is really apparent
is that Disney is certainly appeasing the 5-10 year-old crowd (which
is not a bad thing), but too often Jones’ words come off as laughably dumbed
down for a young tyke's consumption.
Even more glaring is the way EARTH is almost annoyingly
sanitized throughout. Bloodshed
and animal violence are all but muted here (sometimes we see animals stalk
and attack one another, but the end results are almost never shown
on screen). I guess this
family friendly approach is understandable, but it sometimes allows EARTH
to come across more as picturesque than intriguing and revealing about the
nature of its beasts. The
predatory nature of the animals presented is clearly an important facet to
their existence, so to neuter this material completely from the film gave
me an undesirable impression that I was not getting the big picture here.
Being too cute is not necessarily a good thing.
Beyond that, EARTH is also a film that desperately begs for the
expansive IMAX format (the prospect of seeing the film using that
technology inspires legitimate goose bumps, indeed). Despite some of my nitpicky
criticisms, EARTH is an absolute visual triumph through and through, so
much so that it really becomes excruciatingly hard to dislike it
altogether. Even though
having the voice of Darth Vader and CNN is more than a glaring
miscalculation here, EARTH nonetheless has a definitive eco-friendly
message, which is not without substance for young viewers take in while
watching it. Considering the
relative slew of banal, mindless, and flavourless family films that
permeate the cinemas these days, EARTH emerges as a very effective bit of
counter-programming. It also
is a minor little miracle film for how it effortlessly engages viewers –
whether they are 5 or 55 – to stare up at the screen for 90 minutes to
behold the natural and exotic beauty of our precious green planet.
For many moments, I certainly did gaze at the silver screen with an
innocent, childlike fixation and interest.
Not too many films are capable of eliciting such a primal reaction.
EARTH is unquestionably up to the task.
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CrAiGeR's other
FILM REVIEWS: OCEANS (2010)
AFRICAN
CATS
(2011)
CHIMPANZEE (2012)
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