The cinematography is absolutely stunning.
This film is beautiful, and some of the sequences are pure genius. The Dubai skyscraper, the oil tanker at sea, and the tar sands are all jaw-dropping. The 'natural' environments are the focus of the story - and they do not disappoint either. Icebergs, rainforests and deserts complete a stunning canvas.
The music is also perfectly pitched, matching the visuals perfectly, and, by using a palette that goes from ethereal voices to frantic orchestration, tells a complex story all on its own.
But... add in Glenn Close and her earnest recital, and suddenly it's less clear what this film is about. Evolution? The history of civilization? Over-population? Poverty? Education? The nature of human greed? Evil multinationals? Defence spending?! Or simply climate change? - which is reached quite late in the film, and by which point we're quite punch-drunk with a barrage of statistics.
(With the visual and aural parts of my brain already in overdrive, the mathematical portion can't keep up.)
The overarching message could have been a simple, powerful one: because of immutable human nature, our influence over the planet is vast and accelerating. We've probably reached the point of no return, and we don't know what's going to happen next. But here it got fluffed up with a roster of teenage naivety: "feed the poor", "stop buying guns", "love nature", "why can't we just all get along?" - as though somehow Ms Close might be able to compel us to unwind our oldest primeval urges.
The opportunity was there for a dialogue on the circumstances of a species that thinks it has beaten evolution, the Pyrrhic nature of that claim - and the likelihood that it's about to get its comeuppance.
Instead, I left the viewing with the impression that the film-makers thought that solar panels, Grameen Bank, rerouting defence budgets to aid for developing countries, peace, love - and a clever power station in Denmark - were going to make everything OK.
Clearly they don't actually think that. Perhaps they felt obligated to tack on a relatively optimistic ending. They certainly didn't come up with any ideas for the taboo, yet inevitable, issue of population.
So in summary...
An admirable project with an incredible aesthetic vocabulary. Even without the commentary, it serves as an awe-inspiring and wary induction to responsible species-hood.
However, this is going to be an extremely traumatic century - yes, I think we knew that - but, overlaid with dialogue, this film shouldn't pretend we know what to do about it.
This film is beautiful, and some of the sequences are pure genius. The Dubai skyscraper, the oil tanker at sea, and the tar sands are all jaw-dropping. The 'natural' environments are the focus of the story - and they do not disappoint either. Icebergs, rainforests and deserts complete a stunning canvas.
The music is also perfectly pitched, matching the visuals perfectly, and, by using a palette that goes from ethereal voices to frantic orchestration, tells a complex story all on its own.
But... add in Glenn Close and her earnest recital, and suddenly it's less clear what this film is about. Evolution? The history of civilization? Over-population? Poverty? Education? The nature of human greed? Evil multinationals? Defence spending?! Or simply climate change? - which is reached quite late in the film, and by which point we're quite punch-drunk with a barrage of statistics.
(With the visual and aural parts of my brain already in overdrive, the mathematical portion can't keep up.)
The overarching message could have been a simple, powerful one: because of immutable human nature, our influence over the planet is vast and accelerating. We've probably reached the point of no return, and we don't know what's going to happen next. But here it got fluffed up with a roster of teenage naivety: "feed the poor", "stop buying guns", "love nature", "why can't we just all get along?" - as though somehow Ms Close might be able to compel us to unwind our oldest primeval urges.
The opportunity was there for a dialogue on the circumstances of a species that thinks it has beaten evolution, the Pyrrhic nature of that claim - and the likelihood that it's about to get its comeuppance.
Instead, I left the viewing with the impression that the film-makers thought that solar panels, Grameen Bank, rerouting defence budgets to aid for developing countries, peace, love - and a clever power station in Denmark - were going to make everything OK.
Clearly they don't actually think that. Perhaps they felt obligated to tack on a relatively optimistic ending. They certainly didn't come up with any ideas for the taboo, yet inevitable, issue of population.
So in summary...
An admirable project with an incredible aesthetic vocabulary. Even without the commentary, it serves as an awe-inspiring and wary induction to responsible species-hood.
However, this is going to be an extremely traumatic century - yes, I think we knew that - but, overlaid with dialogue, this film shouldn't pretend we know what to do about it.