Absolutely love nature documentaries and plenty of those made into IMAX short films were quite good and more. As well as that, other big reasons to see 'Mountain Gorilla' to me were Rhwanda itself, a beautiful and unforgiving place, and a not often seen chance to see mountain gorillas. It is a place that has been visited many times in documentaries, but it is so fascinating and have often learnt something new each time it's covered.
Really do wish though that 'Mountain Gorilla' was better. Have generally been impressed by the IMAX documentary short films, but this is one of the few to not do much for me. While having no issues with the visuals or animals, other documentaries have educated and interested me a lot more and the things that the IMAX documentary short films varied a lot on are failures here in 'Mountain Gorilla' and in a way that's big enough to bring things down significantly.
Beginning with the good, the production values are exemplary. The Rhwanda scenery is a wonder and is as beautiful and unforgiving as ever and spectacularly photographed. The IMAX doesn't cheapen anything.
Did love the gorillas, a wide range of emotions and behaviours and visually they're majestic, and there are parts that are charming and cute.
Unfortunately, 'Mountain Gorilla' is let down badly by the constant and overbearing music and that the already cheesy and basic narration writing is delivered in too phoned in a way that is really at odds with what's going on screen and constantly took me out of the setting.
Pacing is a major issue too, 'Mountain Gorilla' does try to cram in and cover far too much while also having a few too many overlong extraneous scenes, which means that the whole thing feels very rushed and severely under-developed. Also wasn't really educated that much, very little here that covers any new ground and it felt over-familiar. Subtlety wasn't a strong suit either, some of the delivery felt too heavy.
In summary, disappointing. 4/10.
