Into the Deep

I am a professional dive instructor (PADI IDC Staff Instructor #233440)) who, for years, taught at Santa Catalina Island, just off the California coast. One of my favorite remembrances as a dive instructor was to enter the Casino Point Dive Park in Avalon. Just a few feet off the entry point was a kelp forest. I enjoyed hovering weightlessly in the waves, swaying with the kelp, watching fish move in and out.

The human eye sees so much more than the camera can pick up. I was mesmerized by the light that filtered through the kelp forest. The Garibaldi, the California state fish, would wait for us and circle us as we entered the water. Many of my peers took small bags of frozen peas to feed them. Schools of them would circle us and watch us... just in case we brought munchies. In the afternoon around 2pm, fish would "park" for what looked like nap time in the kelp. Night dives was truly another world.

I watched sun stars move along he sandy bottom off of Monterey, CA. I played (cautiously) with the jelly fish that "invaded" one of my open water classes there. How in the world can they actually be alive? Beats me. How do brittle stars know to run in panic? How can they panic if their brains are so small? I've been diving with sharks, and they didn't bother me, but the Moray eel, who opens his mouth to breathe can look fearsome and caused me give them a respectful, wide berth.

No, this movie doesn't have shipwrecks or chase scenes. It's real. It approaches things gently,answering the curious questions of a wide-eyed child. I enjoy it because it's real. It brings back memories. This is what it's really like. It's quiet... and incredibly beautiful. It's peaceful. Breathe deeply and slowly... and feel the waves. Imagine yourself weightless.

It'll change you.

Since there is no message board for this documentary I had to post a comment. Anyway, I thought this documentary was pretty good. I enjoyed the filming since it brought out the vibrant colors of the ocean and the marine life, and I did learn some things I didn't know before. However, I do wish the film was longer and I would have been better if it went into more detail and touched more on the lives of a wider variety of ocean life. So for a documentary it wasn't what one would expect, and in comparison to other documentaries about the sea and it's creatures I have seen it is rather weak. However, I wouldn't say it is awful or not worth seeing. It just could have been better, I think I may have enjoyed it more if I actually saw it in an IMAX theater how it was intended.

At first it looks like an underwater IMAX 3-D film, but then it turns into something awful! Though it is in 3-D, the picture quality (as in 3-D quality too) is kinda bad. The whole movie starts out good (C+ average) and then just flops by stuff an average person won't know by time they die! If you like all IMAX 3-D films go and see it. If you don't then don't waste your $7 on it.

Grade Average: D+

"Into the Deep" is an Imax film documenting the life about fish and other sea creatures.

It's an Imax film, so it's shown on a really big screen. This helps the viewer feel like they are right there, when the camera gives us a view of the water level.

Then it focuses on the life of fish and other sea creatures. For example, did you know that Lobsters and other crustaceans have to break out of their shells and get new ones. Of course you knew that Hermit Crabs do it, but did you ever expect lobsters? Don't forget how weird and cool the Starcastic Fringeheads are.

I'm not sure how much the admission is to get into the Imax theater, but this may be worth it. It's a whole lot better then the other Imax film: "T-Rex: Back to the Creustaceous."

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I don't know what film some of the other reviewers have seen, but I've been to multiple IMAX theatres just to see "Into The Deep." The 3-D effects are excellent, as is the footage and the narration. You'd never think watching the short, happy lives of squid, waving kelp forests, or plankton floating by your eyes would be quite so mesmerising---but the filmmakers really pull it off. 9/10.