Customer Reviews

The Blue Planet: Seas of Life

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This disk is easily the finest of the Blue Planet offerings. Maybe this explains why this disk alone has a green cover. Tackling two very difficult and hard to film subjects, you will be awed by the grace and motion of the storytelling and cinematography. "Open Ocean", the first chapter on this disk, will amaze you with a sense of the grandness of the oceans like no other documentary before it. Imagine a 10000 strong school of fish being attacked from the bottom by dolphin and tuna; and from the top by seafaring birds. Not an easy thing to commit to film. The "Making of" trailer states: "We looked at what has been filmed so far, and tried to film what hasn't been done." They succeeded in spades. After sitting through many oceanographic documentaries, I naturally expected to see a cage-bound cameraman awaiting the appearance of a Great White or Blue Shark... or some shots of a group of placid reef fish. Well, after viewing the first 10 minutes (and picking up my lower jaw off of the ground), I realized that the beauty of this film lies in the professionality of the production. The cameramen have a knack for angles and natural presentation. Never once do you see a diver's air bubbles or feel that a "Person" is filming. For a brief moment, you feel like a fish and you are introduced into a world where you cannot naturally go. The second part, "The Deep", is even more engrossing. Close your eyes for a moment and envision the oddest creature that you can imagine. Surprise! There are stranger things living in the depths. Captured on film are an amazing array of critters that can only make you shudder in horror or gape in wonder at the elegance of their existance. One unfortunate, yet understandable bit is that computer graphics are used to a noticeable extent in this chapter. Considering that some of the fish have never been filmed before, and the scarcity of ambiant light, a few man-made liberties can be easily forgiven. The highlights include the footage of luminous creatures and a wonderous underwater lake (if this sounds like an oxymoron, simply buy the DVD and you will see that our imagination is comparatively bland in scope and vision to what is constantly being discovered.)

The Blue Planet's two episodes on this tape are the very best I have ever seen on the ocean's bowels and surfaces. The best episode here is "The Deep", which alone completely trashes Steve M's film "The Living Sea!" The Deep is ten times more amazing than anything shown in "The Living Sea". This episode takes you
in a submersible down into the dark depths of the planet. The creatures shown are amazing, including: Gulper Eels, rodlike fish, Anglerfish, Sixgill Sharks, and many more! The submersible even passes over a trench 4000 meters down in the deep ocean. It is amazing and sometimes frightening. Very much worth the expense of the entire video!
"Open Ocean", is also very exciting. The real highlights of this episode are the battles between different fish. There is ocean footage almost every second of the 45 minutes.
You will have to view this for yourself and find out how excilirating it really is!

...Truth be told, the second set has no episode as stunning as the Deep Seas in the first set, or as beautiful as the Polar Seas. However, the four episodes match the first four in the depth of information offered, beauty of their photography (how often did I oscillate between "How beautiful!" and "How...did they shoot that?"), and the marvelous narration and production values.

As with the first set, each disk has a ten-minute "making of" short, and an in-depth interview with a member of the production staff. Disk 4 also has an hour-long bonus program, "Deep Trouble", which describes how fishing is ravaging the seas. That alone is worth the price of the disk.

I cannot recommend the four Blue Planet DVDs too highly. Buy them. Enjoy. Share with your family. Marvel at the beauty they show - and the superb craftsmanship with which they were made.

Really incredible images of the weirdest sea life ever seen. The footage of the faunal comunities of the thermal vent is particularly striking. A must see for anyone interested in sea life.

If you or anyone you know has even a remote interest in the ocean and marine life this DVD is a must. Even if you've seen parts of the "Seas of Life" series on the Discovery channel this DVD is still worth it as the difference in quality is astounding.

I had heard a lot of great things about this series before buying them and so my expectations were quite high when I popped the disc into my player. Nothing could have prepared me for the indescribably clear images and absolutely beautiful photography. I don't have a fancy TV, but this disc gave me a taste of the promise of high-definition video. And not only is this disc technically brilliant, the storylines that the editors chose to cover are all incredibly compelling.

During many segments in both "Open Ocean" and "The Deep" I watched almost in disbelief at what I was seeing. Through many years of watching nature documentaries I have never seen anything like what is contained in these two episodes. It really is quite remarkable (and the "making of" featurettes are well worth watching as well).

I can and do recommend this DVD without any reservations (something that any of my friends and relatives could attest to ;-)!

This was an amazing documentary that I saw not long ago. I have always wanted to be a marine biologist and then I saw this movie and knew exactly what I had to do. This movie is fantastic with rare footage of live deep sea creatures uninhibited and fully entrenched in daily activities. This not only gives you an idea of what deep sea creatures look like, but amazingly shows predator/prey interactions (though some of that was dramaticized, it was entertaining none the less). Now working with one of the contributing scientists from the movie, I watch this every time I sea it on discovery or animal planet and I'm even more amazed when I see the fish the filmed in person.

AMAZING dvd..The colour is just out of this world w/o a high Def TV. The footage makes the viewer feel like they're actually there..DEFINITELY worth buying as well as seasonal seas/coral seas..I couldnt decide which one to get so I bought them both and highly recommend them :)

Oh and they have behind the scenes footage for each section (so two BTS per DVD) very interesting to see how much effort and energy was invested!!!

The only thing that kept me from giving this film five stars was the fact that I didn't find the audio as stimulating as the video. There's nothing really wrong with the score or the narrator, but in my opinion niether sounded as inspiring as the images on the screen, and the added sound effects were at times almost annoying. The information in this documentary is very fascinating, but after watching it once I found the desire to play it again with the sound off; while listening to Beethoven instead. But for all this, it is really a very beautiful film.

The Blue Planet - Seas of Life (Part 2) is a fascinating look into the ocean. The photography is superb and the animals that are shown in The Deep look like something out of Star Trek rather than animals that live on our planet. Over and over I needed to keep telling myself that these animals live in the same ocean that we swim in.

The quality of this DVD is second to none and as always, the BBC does a great job with the extras. The wide screen format of these two programs enhances the overall experience.

I would highly recommend this DVD series to anyone who is fascinated by our planet and to anyone who has ever wonder what lives out there in our oceans?

I was amazed at the quality and splendor of this DVD. It has some of the most incredible (some never before seen)fish and animals captured in beautiful detail. The ocean-diving birds, the sunfish being cleaned by sea-birds, the psychedelic creatures of the deep - amazing stuff!!!! Is excellent for children and adults.