"Winged Migration" is an Unexpectedly Breathtaking Documentary
Written: Sep 10 '07
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Product Rating:
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| Bang For The Buck |
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Pros: Beautiful cinematography; wide variety of birds; backdrops all over the world; impressive closeups and sounds.
Cons: Little information; many birds filmed without mention or captioning of a species name.
The Bottom Line: This film has very beautiful scenery. Viewing these birds took my breath away.
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| XSarenkaX's Full Review: Winged Migration |
My TiVo is set to capture documentaries that might pop up from time to time. The generic, pictureless description provided by the TiVo service offered me a wide variety of possible entertainment levels for this film. I am interested in nature and I am somewhat intrigued with the migrations of animals like birds, so I thought I'd give it a try.
From the first few scenes, I was absolutely blown away at the cinematography! Much of the footage takes viewers up into the sky, flying along with flocks of birds. The birds fly all over the world, over all areas of the globe, from deserts, to oceans, to the Arctic, to fields - this film takes you to all corners of the world. The scenery is beautiful. The closeups on these birds is extraordinary. The statistics on how far some of these birds fly is unbelievable.
I was enthralled throughout the entire hour and a half. However, my husband was far too relaxed to stay awake through all of it. There is very little narration, and very little verbal (human) expression at all. This is definitely not the kind of documentary that can teach viewers facts via lecturing. In fact, many of the birds I saw and "flew along with" were never named. There were some captions on the screen, labeling the current species and the incredible distances they fly each year (hundreds, even thousands of miles), but throughout most of the film, all that can be heard is the actual sounds the birds make (including the flapping of their wings) and a tasteful musical score.
As I watched, I found myself wondering how in the world these scenes were captured most of the time. I am utterly amazed at the scenes. At the end, I also wondered how hummingbirds could possibly have been overlooked for this film. Not a single hummer is included, although an extremely impressive array of migrating birds is included. In fact, most of them are fairly large birds, and they filmed very well with the equipment used. I remember geese, storks, pelicans, penguins, parrots, and grouse, although there were probably at a hundred different species filmed.
Depending on how interested you are in admiring nature or the beauty of detail and scenery, this movie might wow you or put you to sleep. I was thoroughly wowed myself.
For details on this film, visit:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0301727/
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: None of the Above
Viewing Method: Other
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Nothing
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Epinions.com ID:
XSarenkaX
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 - Top 1000 |
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Member: Bonnie ("Benia")
Location: Chicagoland, IL
Reviews written: 43
Trusted by: 37 members
About Me:Got married in Jamaica and we keep coming back.
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