Australia's Best Movie Magazine

Film reviews

Men In Black 3

It’s not a sequel that needed to be made, but thanks to the charm of its leads and a tone that harks back to the wit and humour of the original, it’s a pretty enjoyable trip.

Bel Ami

The excellent female support cast saves this patchy effort, which is let down by its leading man and a flat screenplay.

The Dictator

A disappointing, often repulsive and mean-spirited mess of a film with seemingly only one real criterion on its agenda: to shock and offend.

The Woman In Black

Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.

search the site

Enter search term:

newsletter

Enter your email address below to receive the weekly Filmink newsletter

Enter search term:

Oceans (Film)

by Mark Demetrius | May 23, 2011 16:41 | Edited May 23, 2011 16:42

Revealing breathtaking footage of the oceanic world, this is an unmissable doco for animal lovers – sometimes heartbreaking but always wondrous.

Ecological documentaries simply don't come any better than this, at least in terms of cinematography. Oceans carries an angry conservation theme, as well it might, about the devastation that our vandalistic species has wrought on the sea and its inhabitants. But it's the visual component here which is unforgettable.

 

Shot just about literally all over (and under) the world, this amazing film introduces us to one exotic marvel after another. There's the bizarre and venomous stonefish; the extraordinary Asian sheep's-head wrasse, which looks like a cross between The Elephant Man and something from Lewis Carroll; the gorgeous leafy sea-dragon; the graceful blanket octopus; plus memorable close-ups of more familiar creatures: a marching phalanx of crabs, otters basking, a mother walrus nuzzling its baby, and an Antarctic seal coaxing its pup into the water for the first time. No matter what you've seen before, there will be revelations here. Much of the footage is rhythmical, even balletic, and of course there's also the power, beauty and majesty of the sea itself.

 

Inevitably, in such a realistic production, there's a quotient of death and killing along with all the enchantment. Some of it is heartbreaking, particularly when (as with the perils of dumped plastic and waste) it runs so obscenely contrary to the balance of nature.

 

Occasionally the voice-over narration (by Pierce Brosnan) gets a tad twee or inane - this is a Disney film after all - and some of the explication is superfluous. ("Merely knowing these creatures exist isn't enough to tell the story of their lives.") But it doesn't matter one jot. This is a veritable feast for the eyes and a treat for animal lovers, and it matches David Attenborough at his own game. Oceans is not to be missed, and is definitely one for the big screen.