"Oceans" qualifies as a visual spectacle of the sea and its zillions of inhabitants in all shapes, sizes, and colors serving one purpose or another and sometimes winding up as the snack of a bigger occupant. The scenes of the baby sea turtles scrambling in broad daylight across the sands only to be snatched up by the frigate birds; the scenes of the dolphins feeding on an underwater tapestry of tuna along with other predators, like birds, participating in the feast; and the scenes of stone fish sucking absent-minded damsel fish down makes this documentary, narrated by Pierce Brosnan, a hypnotic experience. Clocking in at 84 minutes, co-directors Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud make this documentary experience of marine life an interesting aquatic epic. Everything boils down to a confrontation between other species and the film breaks down into a series of stories about encounters. The cinematography is terrific. The scene of opposing armies of spider crabs marching toward each other in a frontal assault almost looks like the spiders in "Starship Troopers." The monstrously huge blue whales sliding through the depths of the deep are poetic. Shots of penguins lunge up out of the ocean through cracks in the ice still look just as fresh and exciting as they did before in other documentaries. Eventually, Perrin and Cluzaud cannot resist the temptation to make a statement about human pollution of the ocean. Satellites photograph the path of pollution from the rivers into the ocean.
"Oceans" is great to look at, but it is designed as a generalist form of entertainment. Indeed, the visuals overshadow the narrative, despite Pierce Brosnan evocative line readings. For the record, Perrin and Cluzaud spent four years lensing this atmospheric homage to the sea.
"Oceans" is great to look at, but it is designed as a generalist form of entertainment. Indeed, the visuals overshadow the narrative, despite Pierce Brosnan evocative line readings. For the record, Perrin and Cluzaud spent four years lensing this atmospheric homage to the sea.