Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

After the success of Walking With Dinosaurs there was an explosion (it was small explosion because it’s a small community, but an explosion none the less) of CGI archeology documentaries. I’m interested in archeology so I think it was a good thing because it funneled a lot of money into the field that hadn’t been available before. Unfortunately, any time there’s a bandwagon you get some jumpers who should have missed.

I left my Walking With Dinosaurs back in the US when we came to Korea and I have been kicking myself for that decision almost since I got here. Those documentaries would have been great for teaching English. So when I found Land of the Mammoths at Technomart I grabbed it.

And then I put it back because I’d had a really bad experience with one of these documentaries .

Then I walked around the DVD floor before going back to that dealer and grabbing the disc. It was $5 and I’ve always been a sucker for the ice age.

It follows the standard pattern. There’s the documentary portion that follows the work of field researchers finding mammoth bones laying around on the Russian Steppes and dealing with the natives for tips on where more bones can be found. Because mammoths are extinct it’s legal to sell the ivory so the researchers are also buying tusks from the natives. The other portion is the story of the initial mammoth find called the Jarkov Mammoth after the family that found it. This mammoth was found intact and buried in the permafrost so they chopped out a 26 ton cube of mud that they spend much of the film clearing the mud away millimeter by millimeter. Through the magic of CGI we see the Jarkov Mammoth as it might have lived in the Ice Age.

The research aspect of the documentary is very interesting. It’s slow and torturous, but archeology isn’t all Indiana Jones. In fact, none of it is Indiana Jones but this is a documentary not an action adventure film. The trials and tribulations of the search are very interesting. It’s Siberia, it’s brutally cold and the mud eats boots. Unfortunately, the director occasionally didn’t shoot to show the risks. At one point the researchers are debating climbing into a crack in the soil to investigate a smell, but it’s dangerous. I couldn’t see how it was all too dangerous because it looked like a crack in the ground. At worst it appeared that a few pound of dirt might fall on his head. I thought he was in much greater danger when he got both boots stuck in the mud halfway to his knees. Then we watched the bonus footage and they shot the same crack from the distance. That crack was halfway down a 85% slope. If the dirt above had collapsed he would have been trapped under tons of permafrost and mud. On the other hand, the shots of the cave where the mammoth cube was being stored so it wouldn’t melt in summer were fantastic. The sparkle of the ice was really impressive. And when the cave was flooded with frozen fish, that was a sight to see.

Unfortunately they didn’t finish the evacuation of the mammoth-sicle before the end of the documentary. In face they were just getting into soft tissues. That felt like a rip off, after over an hour and a half, we don’t get answers. The best we got was a rib.

The life and times of the Jarkov Mammoth probably should have been left out completely. First of all, and this is a pet peeve, all the theories about mammoth behavior are presented as truth. Until we can travel in time and watch mammoths wandering around we don’t know. Second, the CGI is almost painfully bad. I think I could have done a better job with my Mac laptop at the same time. I know I could have done a better job with stop motion. Nothing has any weight.

And believe it or not, I actually liked the documentary. For all its flaws, it tells an interesting story of this amazing find. I learned a lot about Siberia, archeology and mammoths. However, I wish they would have waited until the researchers finished melting the mammoth. I know it would have taken another couple of years work, but then I would have felt like it was finished. What do I do now? Wait for the sequel? The dealer I bought this disk from had a couple of other disks in this series and I’ll probably think very seriously about buying another one. The research was interesting, but all the dramatizing just ended up being annoying.

If you like these things, this isn’t the worst one going, but it’s not the best either. Keep that in mind when deciding.


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12