Customer Reviews

Ring of Fire

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

 

 

I have purchase several Imax DVD'S. I would rank this film better than most(Grand Canyon and Niagra) and below (The Liveing Sea and Alaska. It is more educational but it does not lack spectacular photography. That is one of the reason I buy Imax is to see thing's you do not ordinarely see. Some Imax films try to tell two to four short stories in a film; to me those film's don't work. I do not buy Imax to see pedestrian plot's; I buy to learn and enjoy the photography. This film fits the bill. If your interested in volcanoe's I do not think you could buy a better film.

The standards for documentaries nowadays are very high. You need to succeed not only in the educational side of the story but also in entertaining the viewer. As an example, Greg Macgillivray's work in The Living Seas, Stormchasers or The Magic of Flight does everything in order to keep you on the edge of your seat without loosing the story's edge. Here, you can learn a lot from the sysmic and volcanic activities that determine most aspects of the people that live inside the Pacific Rim. Nevertheless, you never feel quite engaged and/or commited to the story as you do with the formerly referred work. The story starts with a visit to Chile's newly born Navidad crater and leads us through a journey that involves San Francisco, the Aleutian Islands, the coasts of the former U.S.S.R., Japan, Hawaii and Indonesia. Anyhow, some shots are impressive- like San Francisco's earthquake recordings- some are really dull. The video and audio quality are very good, though not impressive. Unless you want to complete your dvd collection, try other stuff such as the discs referred above or Africa-The Serengetti or Imax-Alaska.

I actually bought this for my 4 and 6 year old sons. They love it and it made them interested in volcanoes and earthquakes. They quote it! It is informative and shows more than a US perspective, although a lot of time is spent on San Fransisco, Mount St. Helens. and Hawaii. It also covers a Japan and Indonesia. It entertains and informs. The trailers included are good too.

The march of Blu-ray resuscitated IMAX nature films continues with Ring of Fire a 38-minute look at that most nightmarish of natural phenomena. The film gets all up into the grills of volcanoes, the cameras capturing bubbling, frothing magma, billowing smoke belched from mountain orifices and the slow, malevolent creep of lava.

At just a shade north of thirty minutes, the documentary won't explore every facet of volcanology, but there's enough info to get you started on your quest for more information.

On Blu-ray, the savage imagery pops, though it's not quite as impressive as similar nature documentaries. Perhaps it's the age of the production (originally released in 1991), but the 1.78:1 resurfacing just doesn't quite wow me as it should. It's certainly a serviceable transfer, but could have been a lot more detailed and robust. The DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track throbs (the LFE resonates during the eruptions) but there is only an IMAX trailer reel for extras.
-Full review at dvdverdict.com

Yes, the footage is stunning, huge and colorful. However, the presentation of information is not really compelling. The topic is interesting, but what's its relationship to everything else? I was disappointed. If you're a teacher, and you're teaching about volcanoes, this is a good one for one period, because it's short. But actually not that thought-provoking. For my money, I'd still prefer to show Dante's Peak, even though the filmmakers have taken some artistic license to tell the story.

end of movie stated made in 1991. Not informative about the volcano's or the ring of fire, other than in general. the footage is good (by today standards) but doesn't seem to move from point to point without engaging the audience. The only part that came close was the Indonesian culture connection to the volcano. a large part of the film tries to show the different culture effects of earthquake (wait wasn't this about volcanoes only?) and volcanoes on the local population, for USA baseball?? Pass it up unless you want to see some footage of different volcanoes around the world, but they are basic footage.

Purchased this after reading reviews and found it unusable for my Earth Science classroom . There was very little information that applied to state objectives I cover in my middle school classroom - which has to cover High School objectives . Would NOT recommend this for any classroom unless maybe a film class on what not to do . No doubt '' entertaining'' on/at an IMAX screen .