A Beautiful Planet IMAX review by Dan Bullock, May 2016.
Narrated by Hollywood starlet Jennifer Lawrence, A Beautiful Planet 3D is an exclusive IMAX film – which I also mention because you’ve got to see it in its true 3D IMAX format – that takes us on board the International Space Station (ISS) but also shows us the Earth from their perspective and offers up a very deliberate, important look into climate change and the consequences it’s having on our great blue planet.
Director by IMAX documentary stalwart Toni Meyers, also behind Blue Planet and Space Station 3D, you can fully understand why she’s picked up the acclaimed plaudits as A Beautiful Planet is unique film-making and although not literally out of this world, it really celebrates the technology on offer to us at this moment and takes you off into space. As well as joining the day-to-days lives of astronauts on the ISS, there’s beautiful sequence after sequence of seeing the Earth at night, when the lights of cities and countries burst the world into the darkness and looks like a circuit board of life.
Made in a partnership with NASA, and Meyers deep history with them, it’s hard to put into words how enormous the footage is… in the biggest sense. I’ve always been in admiration of those who put themselves through the trials and tribulations of exploring as far as humanly possible, so if you’re a fan of all things Science, then this will be right up your telescope, so to speak…
Saying all this, A Beautiful Planet isn’t just about admiring the planet though, it’s also a reminder (complete with that Jennifer Lawrence narration) of the changes we’re causing and the very real differences it’s making to the environment around us that, frankly and truthfully, keeps us alive. You get to see an accurate visualisation of our changing world, with everything from where water is running out, California for example, to the rising tides, the disappearing Amazon rainforests and ever-shifting ice shelves.
With a running time of only 46 minutes, it’s a short film experience but that word is definitely one to savour with IMAX footage of the Space Station and of our Earth unlike anything you’ve seen in such absolute awe-inspiring scale.
A Beautiful Planet debuts in IMAX 3D on Friday 27th May.
