Customer Reviews

Journey into Amazing Caves (IMAX Large Format)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a well-produced DVD and the imagery is very high resolution. Contrast and color are very good. Liam Neeson is an outstanding narrator. Most of the imagery of the movie is great. Very dramatic panoramas, especially the helicopter fly-throughs. You will enjoy watching the movie once.

Unfortunately, the reason I don't rate it more than 3 stars is Amazing Caves suffers the common IMAX shortcoming that it has been produced as an all ages, all audiences film ... with a juvenile story, written at the 4th grade level. Too much of this brief 40 minute movie is wasted tending to the silly plot.

One can sit through it once and enjoy it, certainly if you have kids with you, and at a real IMAX theater. Your kids might enjoy watching it more than once, especially younger daughters since the two main characters are women scientists/adventurers. But with kids being so smart and worldly these days, even 6th graders would tire of the simplistic story and narration.

Why can't there be IMAX movies with appeal at a more intelligent level? Everest is a good example of an IMAX movie which does succeed in appealing to all audiences, but isn't written at a juvenile level.

The great caving and nature imagery in Amazing Caves is very frequently interrupted so they can keep tending to their story line of two women on their caving exploration and adventure, always "getting in contact" via a hoaky-looking simulated web video multimedia laptop screen with a small class of kids somewhere. Of course it is simulated and plain silly. There is no live contact with anyone. Probably filmed months apart. Yet they keep returning to this .... story, at least 10 times during the movie. Very annoying. Maybe it will appeal to young kids ...

Since IMAX movies are so short anyway, why don't they produce an alternate-cut of IMAX movies so that when 6 months later they release it on DVD, they can include the theatrical, all-ages juvenile story film, and a more intelligent, less pandering version with more interesting and meaningful narration, and cutting out the 30% of the film wasted on hoaky story devices and replacing it with more excellent, dramatic imagery. I know this means extra work, but it would likely result in more DVD sales. Maybe they could even show both versions (Kids, Grown-Ups) at the theaters.

I have a large-screen projection system (162") with 10-channel surround. I have a large collection of IMAX movies. I am always looking for good, high-resolution nature, space and science movies. I just wish that more IMAX movies were actually worth watching multiple times, without having to suffer through juvenile stories, plot devices and elementary-school writing.

If you want to see the movie for its good imagery, just rent somewhere or it or buy it on Amazon. You can always sell it again in the Amazon Marketplace, just like I did.

I normally like the McGillivray-Freeman IMAX films, but I have to say that this one is the worst I have seen from that company. The subject matter was not very interesting and most of the shots are either close-up or small area shots which make poor use of the IMAX format. The best sequence in the film was flying through parts of the Grand Canyon. This film has none of the interest or drama such as the IMAX film Dolphins has, nor did it have the spectacular area shots which make the most of the IMAX format such as Everest has. All in all, a mediocre effort from a usually winning team (McGillivray-Freeman).

The concept is great, but the film leaves you wanting for more. First off, getting only 35 minutes of story seems somewhat of a shortcut for the money you spend on a DVD. The subject matter is caves, and if you are interested in the strange beauty of these areas like I am, you are not satisfied with the film. They spend more time on the human element and diversions such as the kayaking mentioned in an earlier review. They needed to dedicated more time to showing the wonderful formations that could be found inside the caves.

First of all, I am a caver. Before watching this IMAX movie in DC in an IMAX Theater I was afraid I would be disappointed because I realized this movie was to be made for the general public, was I wrong. All thru this movie I kept thinking to myself, I can't wait until this movie is out on DVD, well it is and I highly recommend it. True, it is written to address the general public, but as a caver of over 40 yrs I throughly enjoyed it and I have also bought the CD of the Soundtrack, it is a 5 star in my mind also and I am not a Moody Blues fan.
The photography is super, I like the behind the scenes part as much as the movie, so you are getting two shows for the price of one. If something happened to my DVD of "Journey Into Amazing Caves", I would have to go out and buy another for my DVD library, I like it that much.
I have seen a few IMAX movies in my time and this is one of my favorites, if not my favorite, but I am a caver and I like caves.

Even on a small screen, this IMAX special is riveting. With visits to dry, ice and water caves, there are always thrilling moments. Most of the first third deals with accessing the cave in the Grand Canyon with some nifty aerial tricks. However, there is only a glimpse of the cavern itself. More time is spent kayaking on the actual blue-green Colorado River. The Greenland ice cave sequence again is more about the harrowing and dangerous aspect of unstable blue-ice caves, but still manages to thrill with fantastic photography. The one last sequence in the cenotes of Mexico is truly amazing with divers actually taking off thier tanks to squeeze through holes!

The great soundtrack by the Moody Blues is not readily apparent and is played down except at the end and beginning. The narration is sometimes annoying and juvenile, providing information that teenagers might find interesting. I expected more cave shots and not science lessons.

However, this is a great film and includes a "behind the scenes" story that is every bit as interesting as the main movie. The soundtrack in itself if better as a separate CD.

This is an amazing film! I haven't had the pleasure of seeing it on the IMAX screen though, but it is still breathtaking. I admire these 'cavers' for their courage in seeking out the unexplored places of the earth. Greenland was just beautiful, a place I know I won't be visiting anytime soon. There are many unexplored beautiful places on this planet noone has witnessed even yet, but this is a nice glimpse into that special world. I also recommend the soundtrack, very captivating. Enjoy! Peace, Dakota

This is a visually stunning movie... It took me back to a time in my life when I was much more adventureous!

If you have a widescreen TV, you won't be disappointed by this film. Like all IMAX features, it's short but captures the most photogenic scenery imaginable. It's not much more than an introduction to the world of caving, and it focuses on the search for extremophiles -- microorganisms which thrive in the most hostile of environments. And in classic IMAX fashion, the film crew risks as much danger as any of the spelunkers but is so transparent you'll forget anyone else was there.

This film is replete with scenes of tiny humans in vast landscapes, cool blue glacial walls, breathtaking canyon vistas, and surreal, silent palatial caves. The DTS soundtrack based on the music of the Moody Blues is perfectly expansive and well-suited for the glorious images.

Get this DVD. Trust me.

after a cave diving vacations in the Akumal area (where the underwater caves section of this film was made) i saw a magazine ad from this movie and to my surprise the movie was running in mexico city (where i live). a couple of days after my arrival i went to see this movie to the imax theater. i have to tell you all this because i was really thinking of it before actually seeing the movie. here i go:

pros:
1) there's no need to say that the photograpy was gorgeous and the huge screen leave you breathles at all times. after reading the credits (yes i do that), it was no surprise to find out that Wes Skilles was behind the underwater camera, he is one of the most experimented cave divers around and a incredible photographer, so thats one of the reasons that i'll probably end up buying this dvd.

cons
1) the film run time is to short (38 minutes)so if you're talking about underwater, dry and ice caves you will end up being short of time and leave the public wanting more. i ended up with the sensation of sex without any orgasm, frustated. if the producers idea was to show how "cool and macho" these beautiful places are there was no need to waste the talent and voice of Liam Nelson they just had had to send us a powerpont slide show and we would ended up with the same conclusion. but if the producers idea was to explain the importance of these places to the ecosistem and their beautiful fragility let me tell you that more imax film cans were necessary.
2) but what i really hated about this film (i will talk about the underwater caves only, the ones i know) is the fact that just like a mtv or xtreme sports video if focus more on the "x factor" of the caves, "how cool they are", how "what's up dude attitude of the cavers" and that's all wrong!!! it is bad reputation for the caves and a stereotypes the people who dive them.

maybe i was hoping too much from these film, maybe i was expecting something different from what mtv o xtreme sports would have done to cover this topic. that's my opinion. watch the film and have your own.

I had been waiting for this film for some time as I was impressed with the same groups filming of everest. If you are not already interested in caving then this will wet your appetite. It nearly had me contemplating learning how to cave dive. I enjoyed the making of the film as much as the film itself and only hope it helps create more interest in preserving the beauty underground.