Movie review: IMAX fails to show Earth’s max beauty

By Kate Findley
Daily Trojan

LOS ANGELES (U-Wire) - “Sacred Planet,” Jon Long’s IMAX documentary, is a template of lush, dazzling imagery that is dense with picturesque details but light on meaning. Like a double-chocolate mocha with extra whipped cream, it is served up beautifully but fails to satisfy the appetite.

The film is a travelogue of exotic, diverse lands that have resisted the ever-expanding flood of corporate development, which devours every tree in its path and regurgitates a Starbucks to take its place. It introduces us to beaches, forests, deserts and mountain ranges in areas as diverse as Alaska, New Zealand, Arizona and Namibia but provides only a cursory overview of these places and their inhabitants.

Within each of these places lies the potential for an intriguing story, but the narrative is only a grab-bag assortment of quotes that fail to connect.

There is a theme here: We must preserve this land for future generations. But the quotes fail to cohere into an in-depth exploration of this theme. They are merely isolated strips of dialogue that are gathered from various sources and then pasted haphazardly over the images of the film.

An elder of an indigenous tribe tells us, “When we look through the eyes of the younger generation, we discover what we all have in common.” A noble sentiment, but the quote fails to resonate because the film neither provides us with an example leading up to this quote nor expands on this quote.

There are explanations for the terse dialogue. Perhaps the film is conveying that the all-encompassing presence of nature dilutes any significance that words would have, rendering them unnecessary.

Long scrupulously centers in on his subjects, capturing even the most inanimate details. Many scenes are shot in extreme close-up, magnifying plants and animals that are often seen as miniscule in nature but are majestic here. A single leaf occupies the width of the screen, while a gargantuan centipede is a dominating presence.

The power of most films lies primarily in images and not in the dialogue. The images, as breathtaking as they are, function simply as stationary objects posing before the director. They neither provide us with a story that fills in the narrative gaps nor evoke any powerful visceral sensations in us.

There is no pulse; the images don’t actively engage us. Watching the film is like looking at a still life — admiring the beauty of the painting but failing to take anything away from it.