Alien Worlds (2020) User Reviews

Ah, now eventually you do plan to have alien worlds in your documentary about alien worlds, right?

[DirtyStarling · 6/10 · 4 December 2020]

6/10. Some neat visuals and interesting ideas sandwiched between padding that is borderline off-topic.

It's incredible just how far this documentary seems to miss the mark. Yes, there are about 2 - 3 minutes worth of fabulous effects shots and maybe 5 minutes worth of talk about how alien life might actually develop on alien worlds, but each episode is about 40 - 45 minutes long. What is this padded with?

How to film rhinocerous beetles having sex. Uh-huh. Interesting. Not why I'm here though.

Watch me go paragliding! Okay, really not why I'm here.

5 minutes talking in very general terms about how we discover exoplanets. Okay, at least related to alien planets.

4 minutes of a falconer training a falcon. What the... ARE YOU EVEN TRYING TO MAKE A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT SCIENTIFIC THEORY ON THE TYPES OF LIFE THAT MIGHT DEVELOP ON ALIEN WORLDS!!?? I mean, I like falcons and all, but again... and I cannot stress this enough... that's not why I'm here.

There's some neat stuff in here, so it's not a total wash, but the padding, oh my the padding. I mean, some of the padding is interesting, but it's so off premise, I have to wonder why they just didn't make a series of 4 - 10 minute mini documentaries called "Neat Things on Earth."

Decent documentary with its limitations

[robinra · 7/10 · 3 December 2020]

The theme of the documentary is perfect with great opportunity for creativity and many potential alien worlds to portray. Each episode revolves around a potential alien world and its animals living there, which have characteristics similar to the animals on earth. The show goes back and forth between the earth animals and its alien world equivalent. The artist impression of the worlds shown and the animals living on it is well executed. Unfortunately most of the 42-minute span of each episode is spend on the earth animals and we only get to see 8-10 minutes each episode which covers the alien world, in which the same images are used several times. This is a significant limitation and probably due to budget constraints and is a major downside to the show. Other than that the concept is great and so is the storyline for each episode. 7/10

Great concept, decent execution

[petra_ste · 7/10 · 19 December 2020]

Love the premise of this Netflix mini-series, which is: suppose you have an exoplanet with certain features (high gravity, oxygen-rich...) and, using comparative biology and special effects, imagine what kind of lifeforms could evolve there. It's the sort of stuff a committed science fiction writer would feverishly write pages and pages about for his world-building; as an unapologetic nerd, I kind of dig that.

CGI is impressive, although at least 50% of the run-time of each episode is devoted to short documentary segments about animal life on Earth. On one hand this is perfectly undestandable for reasons of budget (I imagine CGI of this quality is insanely expensive, so you need to pad out the length) and especially to compare the imagined alien lifeforms to known ones.

On the other hand, these comparisons often feel too broad and forced, so they are sort of hit-and-miss. For example, we skip from the dangers faced by young "sky grazers" on "Atlas" (the high-gravity planet which starts the series) before they learn to fly to... baby meerkats facing scorpions? As much as I find meerkats adorable, I don't quite see the connection other than the very generic "young animals are in constant danger in the wild". Given the "sky grazers" anatomy and life cycle, the race to the ocean of baby turtles would have been a far more appropriate comparison.

Neat concept, though.

7/10

Too much focus on Earth

[vte-vsampedro · 6/10 · 3 December 2020]

For a documentary in theory set on alien planet it focus half of time on vanity shots of Earth people, instead of filling that time explaining how would be posible the life shown. In that way, the 2005 show from National Geographic, although not so visually stunning, was a much better documentary.

Decent concept. Formulaic execution. Regardless, interesting series.

[W011y4m5 · 7/10 · 8 December 2020]

It is an undoubtedly fascinating hypothetical visualisation of what unique alien ecosystems might look like on other planets - if we apply our current understanding of the basic principles of life to otherworldly environments. That said, given the show's clear budgetary limitations (despite the impressive CGI) & the over reliance on repeated shots, they manage to competently make the best content imaginable with the limited resources they clearly have at their disposal.

That's why so much focus is shifted on to Earth, hosting interviews with experts giving expository information; the creators aren't simply justifying the theoretical realisations featured on screen but they're also clearly filling the run time - which would otherwise be vacant if the directors planned on featuring additional sequences elsewhere in these constructs.

Good but off topic

[KeenanHuang · 13 December 2020]

The show itself is very interesting to me. Unfortunately, it spends a lot of time talking about life on earth when the title is clearly supposed to be about other planets.

Updated version of a 2005 documentary Alien Planet

[paxumbrae · 7/10 · 3 December 2020]

This is a well done documentary with a nice budget and it gives a view into the contemporary state of the debate on life on other planets.

Sadly, the idea is taken from a 2005 documentary Alien Planet but not as well executed as the original. The first three episodes are anthropocentric to their core and the last one lacks any imagination - based on most common tropes in science fiction.

Interesting idea, and loads of potential...

Entertaining and imaginative

[the_oak · 7/10 · 6 December 2020]

I like the idea of comparing nature and specific ecosystems on earth with imagined ones on alien worlds. I don't really understand the grudge many seem to have. I like that we get hard science from earth the applied to how it might look on other worlds.

Great documentary

[nkishudak · 10/10 · 2 December 2020]

You actually learn more about your own planet, than the theories of alien planets. That is definitely the original purpose of the show. Asimov stated in his book "Extraterrestrial civilizations" that it is actually impossible to predict alien life forms as our knowledge is limited. It means theoretically in other part of the universe might water even not necessarily needed for life. I did enjoy this show; beautiful cinematography, interesting facts and interesting versions of might alien worlds look like. I hope they shot more seasons.

Would have been a 10 if it wasnt for the padding

[rgriffiths-98939 · 7/10 · 6 December 2020]

The positives: I was super excited to see this and I genuinely loved the weird creatures and alien worlds-especially the one where half is in perpetual day and the other half is perpetual night with a twighlight land in between. The creatures are a little fantastical and sci fi and look like something from Dr Who, Star Wars and The Dark Crystal all rolled into one. The worlds look like something from Avatar or other sci fi/fantasy rather than the green beauty of earth. However, this is not a negative in my view, more of an observation that they have deliberately made the creatures a bit weird to make it more interesting. The negatives: Probably only 30% of the footage is about life on other planets, the rest is segments about how life on earth could inspire ideas about what life on other planets is like. Interesting as they were, these segments were tenuously linked to the alien material and comprised far too much of the run time. They also repeated sections of the alien CGI worlds, which makes me wonder if the covid pandemic somehow interfered with production and they had to make do with far less alien footage than originally planned. They should have built up more sophisticated stories for the aliens and perhaps even done it in the same format as Walking with Dinosaurs where a presenter is spliced into the CGI so it looks like theyre actually with the creatures.

Clickbaited

[devinderoach · 4/10 · 3 December 2020]

4-5 mins of the CGI scenes repeated, yes literally repeated in between 10 min or so segments of various biologists speaking about life on earth. Watch melodysheep's life beyond II on YouTube for something much better than this.

A fascinating exercise in imagination and comparative biology.

[Rasalgheti_2000 · 8/10 · 8 December 2020]

Comparing the similarities between ecosystems on Earth to those of potential extraterrestrial biospheres makes this an exquisite adventure. We travel to 4 different worlds, Atlas, a planet twice the size of the Earth, with a massive force of gravity, Janus a planet with rotation captured by tidal forces, Eden a planet with 10% more oxygen than ours that orbits a double star system and finally Terra, the only one of those four worlds where intelligent life evolved at some point in its history. Although it has some points in common with a National Geographic series from 15 years ago, the alien species are different and they are fabulously designed. Highly recommended. Only someone with a very poor imagination could find this series boring.

Visual masterpiece

[alexeysergeev · 7/10 · 2 December 2020]

The relationship between science and imagination is moving to a new level...

Baited

[dinatamilselvam · 5/10 · 2 December 2020]

75% of each episode goes on what's happening in earth. And they show one cgi scene for 4-5 times. If wanna hear about earth and species here would have just watch NatGeo. Disappointing. So much for something called AliEn WoRlDs

Really Great, But Misunderstood

[ethandaniel_10 · 7/10 · 7 June 2022]

First of all- the cinematography is gorgeous to look at, and fused together with this really nice, ambient synth score- what you have before you is this beautiful, calming, informative, sci-fi experience.

The show explains a lot of the interesting scientific phenomena which takes place here on earth with scientists looking for life in the unlikeliest of places. Then they take the laws that created these life forms and apply them to exoplanets and each of their respective characteristics in order to show us what these potential microscopic lifeforms would evolve into according to climate, geography, gravity levels and more. It feels rewarding learning all of this while simultaneously enjoying yourself so, I encourage you all to ignore the nay-sayers.

If you're someone who is interested in science and how evolution could work on alien exoplanets, then give this series a shot. Whether the planets are hypothetical or not; the science that goes into explaining it all to you is not. It is a fact here on Earth.

It's not focused on other planets

[etfrhw · 7/10 · 31 December 2020]

It's a good documentary, but it focuses too much on the Earth. The length of time on Earth is almost twice as long as on other planets, but it should be shorter.

Too much repeating CG.

[www-imdb-com-19 · 7/10 · 6 December 2020]

Too much repeating CG. As if they ran out of budget.

When science dares to imagine, we get something wonderfully educating

[Filmiarvustus · 7/10 · 29 March 2021]

Netflix's new docuseries "Alien Worlds" is applying the laws of life on Earth to the rest of the galaxy. This series blends science facts and creative fiction to imagine alien life on other planets. Visuals are amazing and interesting ideas are thrown around, but sandwiched between padding that is borderline off-topic. It focuses too much on planet Earth, creating a mixture of two different documentaries, where both are interesting, but only one actually hits the mark. The short CGI scenes are accompanied by good writing, slow and calming pace, but it feels like a lecture and a missed opportunity.

This documentary clearly misses the mark, but it is still very entertaining.

Don't hesitate to watch if you are interested!

[tibovl · 8/10 · 2 December 2020]

After just binging all 4 episodes I can safely say that this documentary about speculative evolution is definitely worth your time if you are interested.

The CGI is overall very good. The colors are vibrant, textures and lighting are high quality and the animations are, apart from the occasional weird floaty ones, excellent. The only actual bad thing is, that there wasn't more of it. Some episodes could have used a bit more CGI parts in my opinion, mostly episode 1. But if nothing else the visuals alone make this show worth watching. The explanations are very clear and will be easy to understand to newcomers while still providing a small amount of depth to people that are more knowledgeable on the subject matter. Some of the explanatory scenes feel a little bit besides the point or are a tad too dragged out, but those are tiny nitpicks on an otherwise well executed concept. The creatures and behaviours presented are not the most original or unique for people that are interested in speculative biology, however they are very grounded, mostly realistic and there are almost no logical inconsistensies with how the worlds are shown and how the creatures are presented. I also want to reiterate that the models are extremely well made. The voiceover is well done, even if at times a tad overdramatic. I do recommend watching this show in english as the interviewed parts do not translate very well into other languages.

Overall this show is defenitely worth an 8.5 out of 10. I really hope it does well, since this show is certainly deserving of a follow-up.

Stop explaining evolution wrong!!

[rstySp00n · 6/10 · 5 December 2020]

Evolution isn't "nature" growing you an extra pair of legs to run faster, or "inventing" new features on animals to cope with their environment. Nature invents nothing!

It's simply the best adapted survive and multiply or some mutation that ACCIDENTLY happened didn't hinder the animal to mate and the mutation is carried on. Maybe it made the animal better than the "normal" ones so it became dominant and the normal ones disappeared. It doesn't happen on purpose!

Animals don't "adapt" they either die out or not.

So with this out of my system, the show itself is very "Earth" oriëntated and it could do with some extra "spacetime". The graphics are nice and it's just oké to watch during a boring lockdown holiday season but nothing special.

Unfortunately more like a documentary about humans

[dominikstar-58640 · 5/10 · 3 December 2020]

Unfortunately, like in the headline said, this documentary is more about the life of single human-beings and their professions instead of alien life.

Maybe 40% of the documentary is about the real (how could it be) alien life. But the 60% rest of every and each episode is about a human being who does something in chemistry, biology or physics to explain behaviour of (alien) life.

CGI was awsome and it was an interesting series, but i wanted a whole documentary about extrasolar life, not about life on earth and the life of some individuals.

Interesting show

[gunner618 · 10/10 · 6 December 2020]

Found this while stoned, and love it. Grab some snacks and hit the bong a few times and watch it!

I liked the ideas. The evolutionary organisms not as much.

[kenudez-13829 · 6/10 · 6 December 2020]

Now, I understand we're taking into consideration billions of years of possible life on these planets but we should realize how some of life forms and thus evolutionary trends existed. First off. Fur. Furry animals on earth are a fairly new addition to the history of life when viewed along the whole timeline. It's unlikely that, without the same unfortunate events that befell earth ie the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, furry animals would exist. The asteroid changed the temperature, oxygen levels and other things, making adaption ie growing hair necessary.. things like this took me out of the show frankly. Good effort though

Sloooooow

[OPPATRIA_ · 4/10 · 2 December 2020]

Veeeeery slooooow to buy time to avoid having to develop too many ideas.

Disappointing.

Low reviewers missed the main point

[handpaintedsignage · 7/10 · 31 December 2021]

I found this documentary interesting because I think the real focus was NOT about alien worlds but how absolutely incredible our own world is. The diversity of life on our own planet is so extraordinary but it is only due to the simplest factors. Gravity, water, light etc. Everything we take for granted. Don't focus on the alien aspect so much but just marvel at the extraordinary facts of our own planet and its life forms and you could never find it "boring"