A Disney Nature ecological documentary, filmed throughout the globe's mighty oceans. Narrated by Pierce Brosnan.
A meditation on the vanishing, weird and wonderful creatures of the aquatic world, Oceans sets out to meet the creatures of the sea and to show how prodigiously it teems with life. From giant whales, angry sharks, giant jellyfish to living fossils that call the deepest ocean beds home, Oceans boasts stunning deep-water photography utilising the latest underwater technologies.
Oceans is as grand and loosely defined as its title. Ambitious and awe-inspiring, yes. Deep as the Pacific, no. First and foremost it's a triumph to look at. Its French filmmakers spent months tracking their underwater stars using the best new digital cameras, editing it with a view to keep the pace artfully maintained, as though they were in congruence with the oceans' swells and tides. Even for those who've overdosed on late-night wildlife porn, the team's voyeurism was rewarded by some unique, Oscar-winning performances: warrior-like crabs swarming on Australia's ocean floor, fish slipping into the folds of sharks' gills, dolphins voluntarily spinning through the air as though delivering a performance at an aquatic park.
If it wasn't for this stunning imagery, you could almost forgive the film for its not-so-subtle flaws: it leaps around the globe from South America to Africa, Australia and the South Pole with more gay abandon than a curious cuttlefish, lacking in context, narrative and purpose. Why are there so many crabs all charging in different directions? We don't get to find out. Instead we get Pierce Brosnan reading a script so saccharine it deserves to be sucked into a whirlpool.
"The ocean draws its secrets close," he sighs, as darkness encroaches. The sporadic eco-messages also feel like token additions. "The question is not, 'what is the ocean but who are we?’” he concludes rhetorically, nonsensically, as the closing credits explode into a tune that ruins the natural poetry of the film. That's a shame because, visually, Oceans speaks for itself.
By Rebecca Barry Hill, Flicks.co.nz
The photography in this movie is utterly amazing. You've seen it all before but here it has drama at all scales. Some sequences even haunt - the spider crabs in "Melbourne Bay" ...woooo, the extraordinary film of a walrus carrying her pup into the water and a leopard seal doing the same. You have to stand back from - block your ears - the cheesy dialogue script read by Pierce Brosnan and just watch. Take ear plugs perhaps?
Jus dive in and admire the spectacle of the Sea creatures ... the narrative is rather irrelevant, pictures speak a thousand words. But the one thing that I did not like at all is the end credit choice of song ... way to Dysney-ish, and a spoiler in my opinion. But don't get put off by it , it is a fascinating journey into a vanishing world.
Sure it was simple but some beautiful footage and a message which will get through to a lot of people. Saw some interesting creatures I hadnt seen before.
Some fantastic footage - such as a diver swimming alongside the Great White - but the rest is just fluff. You'll learn more about the oceans in an episode of Spongebob than you will in this entire 84 minute arthouse flick. (To qualify as a Documentary there needs to be some kind of information passed on to the viewer.) However if you're having trouble sleeping, hire this when it's out on DVD and the soothing tones of Brosnan's voice, combined with the sounds of the underwater world will lull you to sleep in no time.
What "Winged Migration" did for birds, Oceans does for all sorts of strange sea creatures in an ambitious, impressively filmed documentary.
Once Oceans' exhilarating visuals get going, it's easy to ignore the words. This really is a film that manages to show us things we've never seen and make what we have already seen look different and new.
The filmmakers work tirelessly to parallel their undersea world with the larger universe, offering genteel reminders of our mutual dependence.
Funny, touching, and amazing, Oceans truly is a majestic piece of cinema, which really needs to be seen on the big screen.
Though there's a formlessness to it all, the wow factor will thrill the "Earth" crowd, making Oceans a surefire bet for families and nature lovers.
We've been told the NZ release date for this flick is Thursday, 7th Apr 2011.
Release date: April 7th 2011.
We haven't received times for this movie in this location yet. However these are updated as cinemas announce them, so check back soon. Hopefully the lovely cinemas in your location will choose to play it shortly. ~Ed.
