Official Synopsis
An extraordinary journey to the top of the world, the documentary adventure “To The Arctic” reveals a compelling tale of survival. Narrated by Oscar® winner Meryl Streep, the film takes audiences into the lives of a mother polar bear and her twin seven-month-old cubs, as they navigate the changing Arctic wilderness they call home.
Captivating and intimate IMAX® footage brings audiences up-close and personal with this family’s struggle in a frigid environment of melting ice, immense glaciers, spectacular waterfalls and majestic snow-bound peaks.
This movie was tough to figure out. It’s a 40-minute film that can’t figure out whether it wants to be about nature, the melting ice of the arctic or just samples of arctic life. The marketing of it showcases a mother polar bear and her cubs, but the film actually has about 15-20 minutes of just their story. It never really stays on task with that story, nor does it show any sign of proper transition to that portion of the movie.
It’s all a bit confusing and jumbled.
Part of the film talks about how the ice of the arctic is melting away, and how it should be all gone by 2050 (if we don’t do something to slow the process). Then the film shifts to the polar bears briefly. Shortly thereafter, it switches to scientists and filmmakers and what they’re doing in the arctic. We then meet the natives of the arctic, more filmmakers and then scientists following caribou migrating. Finally, we come back to the polar bears towards the end of the film and wrap it up with them. There is no good flow to the film and it’s hard to follow the purpose of it all, though I suspect it really wants to follow these bears and their plight in the arctic.
None of what’s on display in To the Arctic is bad, it just doesn’t really gel well together as a whole. Had this taken the Planet Earth structure and just jumped around to specific portions of the arctic with the arctic being the main focus, then it would be as clear as the icy blue water surrounding an iceberg. It doesn’t do that and we don’t get a clear picture at the purpose of the entire film, so it’s a bit tough to follow.
Having said that, Meryl Streep does a great job with narrating it, but she simply can’t help the confused flow to the movie. I wish it just had more structure to it, as it could have been really darn good (my kids still enjoy it — they’ve watched it twice).
As for the Blu-ray 3D portion of the film, it’s a mixed bag.
The Blu-ray HD is absolutely extroardinary. The blues, blacks and whites really do dominate your senses when you are viewing this in HD. There is absolutely zero issues with color banding, graininess or artifacts. It’s clean as a whistle. It’s probably one of the nicest nature Blu-rays that I’ve seen in some time. If you took this sort of quality and added it to Blue Planet or some other nature program then you would be in HD heaven. The IMAX camera makes this HD experience doubly more impressive, as the sheer scope of the environment is really on display for the viewer. You’ll probably want to get a blanket to warm up after viewing some of the places in HD.
There is no question that the HD quality in this release is top-notch.
(Viewed in Passive 3D)
The 3D portion of the film is a different story. When the film has graphics onscreen during the 3D portion of the presentation, it’s breathtaking. My kids were giggling and ducking when the cast/crew were credited during the opening (the words would break apart and they would duck to avoid). As soon as the actual movie started, things were pulled back a bit. The majority of the film has some minor depth to it for 3D, but you only get true depth to the images when you’re on the arctic waters looking at land or polar bears. There’s not a lot that really stands out during the entire film (literally). One of the better parts of the 3D experience was with the fishing boat that carrying the camera crew. The shot ‘on’ the water giving a nice wide shot of the boat was nearly dizzying because of how nice the 3D depth was displaying. As opposed to other 3D films I’ve seen, this one is probably low on the list in terms of impressiveness.
In the end, I really enjoyed the HD more than I did the 3D.
Finally, a big plus for this release is what special features come packed with it. Here’s what you’re getting:
· Welcome to the Arctic
· Pristine
· A Polar Bear Family
· To the Arctic with Meryl Streep
· Life Under Water
· The Challenge of Filming in the Arctic
I think these are definitely more than just ‘throwaways’, as some releases would do it. The features here certainly add to the overall feature, which is a good thing. You get a lot of information that helps extend what you already get from the 40-minute experience. It’s good stuff.
