"Planet Earth" certainly represents an enormous undertaking. 5 years in the making; hours of footage from every biome on Earth; pioneering and incredibly intimate footage of a diverse array of animals, many famed for their reclusivity and/or low numbers...
In the end, there's probably an amazing documentary there somewhere, but what's been refined from that excellent ore doesn't quite please the eye.
The main problem probably lies with the writing. The narration feels too sporadic, with huge gaps between the couples and triples of lines creating an atmosphere that's entirely too meditative and frankly puts one to sleep. It presents too little by the way of scientific fact, and when it does it oftentimes is inaccurate or imprecise. The wording occasionally feels quite clumsy, and David Attenborough really struggles pronouncing non-English words correctly, perhaps trying too "English-ify" them a bit too much.
Worse yet is that the editing is sometimes too scattershot, as we jump from animal to animal, from place to place, learning all too little about each one within the fairly flimsy narrative structures.
One last thing to note - this time of the positive kind - is that the music is fairly evocative, although somewhat formulaic. Still, the grand pieces that accompany an Alpine mountain's appearance or the compositions playing as we follow a school of dolphins, bringing to mind the aesthetic of the British high adventure, are worthy of note.
All and all, watching it once could very well be interesting, but it's not quite something that I'd put on a modern-day Voyager probe.
In the end, there's probably an amazing documentary there somewhere, but what's been refined from that excellent ore doesn't quite please the eye.
The main problem probably lies with the writing. The narration feels too sporadic, with huge gaps between the couples and triples of lines creating an atmosphere that's entirely too meditative and frankly puts one to sleep. It presents too little by the way of scientific fact, and when it does it oftentimes is inaccurate or imprecise. The wording occasionally feels quite clumsy, and David Attenborough really struggles pronouncing non-English words correctly, perhaps trying too "English-ify" them a bit too much.
Worse yet is that the editing is sometimes too scattershot, as we jump from animal to animal, from place to place, learning all too little about each one within the fairly flimsy narrative structures.
One last thing to note - this time of the positive kind - is that the music is fairly evocative, although somewhat formulaic. Still, the grand pieces that accompany an Alpine mountain's appearance or the compositions playing as we follow a school of dolphins, bringing to mind the aesthetic of the British high adventure, are worthy of note.
All and all, watching it once could very well be interesting, but it's not quite something that I'd put on a modern-day Voyager probe.