IMAX Dolphins and Whales: Tribes of the Ocean (2008)

Beautiful shot. Stunning visuals. But Short. Too short. Incoherent. It jumps from whale to whale to dolphin. It even has a manatee cameo (it's called whales & dolphins...not sea mammals?) It doesn't seem to have a clear goal of narration. Boring. Yes- I found the narration dull and lifeless. Didn't give much information, -sounded more like filler material. I had hoped to new insights to whales & dolphins, never before seen events, I dunno...something Cousteau? The environmental message to preachy. And on top of that delivered flat. I think the emphasis was on 3D -not on whales & dolphins. Not the worst,but not one worthy of the name Cousteau either.

Yes, there were some beautiful shots of the animals..... That being said, I have nothing else positive to say about this film. It can easily be compared to watching a moving copy of a poorly written encyclopedia. The content was not in the least bit interesting. I have seen lots of great dolphin and whale documentaries and this was easily the mostly boring one I have ever seen. After 20 min (so...half the movie) my daughter turned to me and asked "has it started yet?" I couldn't blame her, I felt like I'd been watching the opening credits for the last 20 minutes. The 3D was also some of the worst I have seen, It would zoom in on these dramatic close ups and then the whole thing would go blurry, not my idea of a well made film when it's so blurry you don't know what part of the whale you are looking at. The constant guilt trips about humans ruining the ocean got a little old as well. It was always thrown in at the end of a segment, like it was trying to be subtle, but failing miserably. I have to say I wasn't too upset when this film ended after about 45 min, I was just glad to get out of there. But really? Can you call that a movie? I call it a glorified public service announcement.

I went and saw this in IMAX 3D yesterday. The footage is spectacular and the 3D is the best I've seen. The music is also very serene. There is footage of several different species of water mammals (mostly Cetacea), including Humpback Whale, Beluga, Right Whale, Bottlenose dolphin, Common Dolphin, Manatee, and more. Daryl Hannah narrates the film and she does a great job. There is a little bit of conservation preaching that seems a little abrupt at the end, but not something that I am against. Though this film is short, and perhaps not the most educational due to the brevity, it definitely provided a great IMAX experience.

Like the gentle giants that make up the latter half of this film's title, Jean-Michel Cousteau's latest production has grace, but it's also slow and ponderous. The producer's last outing, "Sharks-3D" had the same problem. It's hard to imagine a boring shark documentary, but they somehow managed it. The only draw for Sharks was it's passable 3D, which is always fun when dealing with wondrous worlds beneath the ocean's surface. But even that was only passable. Poor focus in some scenes made the production seems amateurish. With Dolphins and Whales, the technology is all but wasted. Cloudy scenes and too many close-ups of the film's giant subjects do nothing to take advantage of IMAX's stunning 3D capabilities. There are far too few scenes of any depth or variety. Close-ups of these awesome creatures just look flat and there is often only one creature in the cameras field, so there is no contrast of depth. Jean-Michel Cousteau is trying to follow in his father's footsteps, but when you've got Shark-Week on cable, his introspective and dull treatment of his subjects is a constant disappointment.