Océans

Another great achievement from Walt Disney Studios. I had loved Earth, their outstanding documentary from last year and thus eagerly anticipated this film. If you are going to see one movie this year make it Oceans. This is why we go to the movies. An absolutely fascinating, breath taking, thrilling experience for the whole family. Seven tenths of our earth is ocean and even in this age of advanced technology there is still so much we don't know about the silent world beneath the waves. This movie bravely tackles that mystery. It makes us realize how in many ways us humans are so small and insignificant in the scheme of things, we only share three tenths of the earth. I love the part where they show the sea lions and animals feasting on each other (a dog eat dog world ha ha). The two parts of the movie that stood out for me are the ones involving our foolishness in polluting the ocean and killing its creatures (they even show it from space) and the shot at the end of the diver and the great white shark swimming together. Narrator Pierce Brosnan makes an eloquent speech about the importance of man and animals co existing together. I consider Oceans to be the best film I have seen this year and hopefully they will remember it at Oscar time!

It's important to note there are TWO versions of this film. Jacques Perrin's original runs 104 minutes and is narrated by Perrin in French. Disney bought the film, cut 20 minutes (much of it critical of human activity endangering the oceans and animal habitats), junked Perrin's spare narration, which lets you wonder at the sights on view, and substituted a gabby but emotionally chilly commentary by Pierce Brosnan.

Perrin's original version is not available in the US, per contract with Disney. The original is available in Europe on DVD and Blu-Ray (but unplayable on most US machines) but it seems to lack English subtitles. So you're pretty much stuck with Disney edition.

The original, however, is to my mind better and much more in line with Perrin's "Winged Migration" than the Disney version. The best that can be said for the US edition is that plays down the "humanizing" of animal life that was an annoy hallmark of Disney's True-Life Adventures of the 1950s.

Absolutely stunning. Simply the most beautiful underwater imagery I've ever seen. It's hard to remain not too affected when talking about ecology. Here, the off screen speech is quite subtle, not too naive and not boring, because sparingly used, which leaves long lapse of dreamy sequences, without a word. Technically, it's easily one of the best documentary ever made. The camera work and photography are incredible, the montage is very effective, alternating slow and fast paced sequences. The score is not too obtrusive. There is a very striking scene, which reminds me the nautical funerals of Laetitia in "Les Aventuriers" by Robert Enrico, if you see what I'm referring to, you will easily notice it, and I assure this scene will stick to your mind for days... Visually stunning, subtle, very recommended.

Disney introduces a new chapter in its nature films called "Oceans". I wanted to see the film because I wanted to be fascinated and learn more. The movie looked spectacular, I mean they looked way better than some special effects, I've seen from like Transformers, Clash of the Titans. I mean some scenes were utterly breathtaking. Its a shame some people are too busy with work to appreciate Nature's beauty. Although it looked beautiful, it was not perfect. I found that the movie didn't have too much details or informations about the Earth's Oceans and that kind of disappointed me.

Overall I found the movie beautiful and entertaining. 8.0/10

There is a sequence in Oceans that blows my mind. A stone crab emerges from the seabed and crawls along. Another follows. And then a few more follow. The camera then trails these creatures as they make their way to somewhere in the middle of nowhere. The stone crabs are joined by more of their own. Suddenly, in an establishing shot that continues to baffle me, the camera reveals what seems like hundreds of thousands of stone crabs in "a great big orgy". The sandy seabed that stretches for miles and miles could not have been more alive.

That is only one of a number of spectacular scenes on show. Another highly memorable sequence shows deft skill in quick cutting as hundreds of predatory birds dive headfirst into the water at startling speeds as the camera captures their assault on small fishes through above water and underwater shots. The latter is quite incredible, and eerily reminiscent of bullets ripping through the water in the Normandy beach scene of Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan (1998).

Jacques Perrin, whose previous film credits famously include acting as the adult Toto in Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso (1988), director of the excellent Oscar-nominated documentary Winged Migration (2001), and producer of Z (1969) and The Chorus (2004), now has Oceans in his resume, a documentary that explores in amazing detail what happens under the sea, bright day or still night, stormy or fine weather. The result is like nature washing over you as you drown in its unrivalled beauty. There is no gasping for air but the taking in of the vitality of life.

Oceans surprisingly works well as "a thriller". In certain sequences, Perrin opts for suspense, such as the one involving baby turtles as they evade hungry birds, making their way into the sea from the shore in their own version of Normandy. Many of them are eaten while the lucky ones try to survive in the big blue ocean. Even though collectively the turtles represent a faceless mass, we fear for each one of them because Perrin focuses on one or two of them at any one time, heightening the sense of vulnerability.

It is not surprising, however, to see Oceans preaching the ecological message. "Save the planet! Save the animals!" become the general plea for viewers to do their part in protecting their only home in this vast universe. But the plea is not as strong and specifically targeted as what is felt in The Cove (2009), the Oscar-winning documentary that secretly chronicles the slaying of hundreds of dolphins by Japanese fishermen in a hidden lagoon, and has now been controversially and unfairly labeled as "anti-Japanese".

Oceans is lightly-narrated. This is a good move as the stunning underwater cinematography is left to do all the talking, or in this context, to speak in silence to the viewer. Perrin films in cinema verite style; his camera is unbiased, objective, and unobtrusive. His use of original music by Bruno Coulais (The Chorus) is also spot on. Very often, the marrying of melody and motion (that of sea creatures) is a joy to experience, alternating between the subtle and the grandeur.

It's weird to say this but Oceans may leave your forearms bruised. Now, you may wonder why. Well, every once in a while, you might just pinch yourself to see if those beautiful imageries are really real or created with a green screen. Of course, no CG effect could ever replicate nature's beauty. Oceans shows why and that's quite something to think about.

SCORE: 8/10 (www.filmnomenon.blogspot.com) All rights reserved!