Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Dive into Deep Sea

By Ben Remo
Science Museum of Virginia intern

Deep under the surface of the world’s oceans is a whole other dimension of life that one has to see to believe. Humans have always been fascinated with the ocean and creatures of the seas. The new IMAX movie, Deep Sea delivers to that curiosity by giving audiences an up-close look at the most bizarre and intriguing sea creatures in existence.


You will be introduced to odd creatures like the mantis shrimp and the Humboldt squid. Usually when you see any ecosystem based documentary, you recognize some of the animals. However, in this film I rarely saw an animal that I recognized. The tiger shark was the only animal in Deep Sea that I could easily identify. Every other animal in the film was new to my eyes. I was fascinated throughout the movie because most of the material was new to me. Your eyes will be glued to the screen as you watch a sun starfish navigate the ocean floor trying to catch sea scallops and you will wonder how the star ever gets to enjoy a solid meal. This and other interesting sea creature stories make the educational film irresistible.

Most IMAX movies can take us to a different place or time. This IMAX movie takes the audience to a different environment all together. Narrated by well known actors Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet, the film showcases beautiful views of the most unique fish in the sea. Depp and Winslet give a play by play on predator and prey relationships as well as how marine life helps one another survive. For example, sea turtles will swim for miles to get a “shell wash” from the reef fish. The fish swim with the turtle eating the algae off its enormous shell. The narrators excel working together to explain the unique relationships and rivalries of the sea.

While there are literally thousands of underwater documentaries out there, and believe me I feel like I have seen them all after my high school oceanography class, this is the most interesting underwater video I have ever seen. It introduces education to entertainment in a way I have never seen before. The clear video and interesting situations will reach out and grab anybody, child or adult, and make them pay attention throughout the 45 minute film.

The star powered narration certainly helps out but the sights are really what set this one apart from the rest. The colorful and at times intense scenes make it hard to pull your eyes away. Throughout the movie, we visit a fried egg jellyfish with a 30 foot tentacle span, an eel with a fishing pole type contraption on its forehead, millions of plankton, and a coral reef built around a sunken ship. This is not just another fish documentary; it takes the audience so much deeper, literally and figuratively.

Words do not do it justice; you really have to see some of these things to believe them.

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