Reviewing Movies

If geography had been this exciting I might have paid more attention in class. Mind you in grade 7 I got at least one 100% grade in the subject. We studied South American Geography but our teacher didn’t plan well and we never got around to studying the US. The subject was so badly taught in later grades that I dropped it by grade 10.

Planet Earth is not intended for children or the squeamish. In the opening minutes we get to see a shark bounce a one ton seal into the air and open its maw to engulf it in one gulp—at least there is no blood visible. In episode 3 we see a piranha feeding frenzy. Episode 2 shows a wildebeest being pulled underwater by a crocodile. The overwhelming message seems to be that one way or another every creature is a part of the balance of nature and when it comes to food nature plays no favourites.

The photography is beyond reproach though it’s about time someone beside Sir Richard Attenborough got to narrate one of these programmes. True or not one could tire of the producers blowing their own horns about yet another creature being filmed for the first time ever.