Under the Sea 3D (2009)

Under the Sea 3D is an excellent IMAX movie but it is an awesome 3D movie. You get to see numerous underwater coral-reef species -- many translucent and undulating -- close up and in 3D. They may be solitary lurkers or traveling in hypnotically shifting schools. They may be predator or prey. Whether gossamer and ghostly or fleshy and alien, they are close enough to show an otherworldly beauty (esp. the cuttlefish). Thanks to your 3D glasses, you may also feel inclined to pet or chin-chuck the daintiest undersea denizens -- or swat at the scariest! The sound quality is exceptional too -- you hear every swirl and shiver of a school of swimmers and every snap and crunch of a predator's jaws. In fact, the only warning I would give about this wonderfully educational movie is that the first 20 minutes are predator-rich -- with in-your-face snaps and chomps in fast and slow motion -- that they might be too scary for some kids under age 10. (My youngest son kept covering his eyes and pleading to leave until we got to the halfway mark.) No more than a total of 5 minutes of discussion spread throughout the second half of the movie addresses the serious implications of global warming but that is hardly a cause for complaint from some since global warming -- denied for decades by lobbyists and vested interests -- has visibly begun to destroy such beautiful and essential ecospheres even as we are finally beginning to admit our responsibility to solve the problem. (Without an end to global warming, we won't have coral reefs to film much less to subsist on.) I saw Under the Sea 3D at Houston's Museum of Natural Science and highly recommend it. 4.5 stars.