Absolutely love nature documentaries and plenty of those made into IMAX short films were quite good and more. As well as that, another big reason to see 'Journey to the South Pacific' to me was the South Pacific itself. It's a beautiful and unforgiving place, not as much as the Antarctic, the Arctic or the African deserts for example (which are also visited a lot more in nature documentaries), while also being fascinating culturally. Which 'Journey to the South Pacific' explores too.
'Journey to the South Pacific' really is not one of the best IMAX/3D short film documentaries. It is interesting enough for the subject matter, which should be explored more in documentaries generally, but a lot more could have been done with it. It is certainly watchable, especially for the production values, but other documentaries go into their subjects in much more depth, are more focused and fare much better in the music and narration. Have generally been impressed by the IMAX documentary short films, but this is one of the few to not do much for me.
Beginning with the good, the production values are exemplary. The Antarctic scenery is a wonder and is as beautiful and unforgiving as ever and spectacularly photographed. The IMAX doesn't cheapen anything.
Did love the animals, with the fish being particularly memorable, and some parts are charming and cute. Cate Blanchett does deliver the narration elegantly and not too over seriously, and the geography was illuminating, learned more about that aspect of the South Pacific than any of my school geography locations.
However, there are significant short comings. There were occasions where the music was nice, but too many times it is really overbearing and it never gels and felt like it was written for something else. While Blanchett's delivery is fine, the narration is far too cutesy and jokey in writing in an attempt to appeal to younger audiences and trying too hard.
Would have liked more of the nature scenes and less of the more human scenes, which did go on for too long and didn't feel real in staging. Pacing is a major issue too, 'Journey to the South Pacific' does try to cram in and cover far too much, which means that the whole thing feels very rushed and severely under-developed. Also wasn't really educated that much outside of the geography, very little here that covers any new ground and it felt over-familiar. Subtlety wasn't a strong suit either, some of the delivery felt too heavy, especially the global message that felt merely there for the sake of it.
Overall, watchable but disappointing. 5/10.
