"Under the Sea"

Well, I didn't get all my draft posts published in September as I had hoped in Another long time between blog posts but... but I'm still pretty pleased with myself. Even after not posting anything for 17 days, I still managed to publish 11 posts for the month. That's about what I've been averaging over the last few years. I also learned the lesson that I'm not a good enough writer to post every day. I think I'll stick to posting every 2 to 3 days and even putting up with gaps of up to 17 days.

When my wife needed to go to Boston for two days of tests (see Amyloidosis), we wanted to bring the kids along so they would know what was going on. But the children and I were not able to go into the various testing and consulting rooms so we decided to explore Boston. Since the remains of Tropical Storm Lee were bringing days of rain to the area, we weren't going to be doing much outside. So, I took the kids to the New England Aquarium. One of the things we did there was to go to the Simons IMAX Theater associated with the aquarium. We saw a wonderful movie titled Under the Sea.

We've seen some really good 3D movies. At least Evan and I saw a really good 3D movie, Avatar, not to be confused with Avatar: the Last Airbender which we also saw and enjoyed. We've also seen some really horrible 3D movies. But this one ranks up there with the great 3D movies. You really feel like the schools of fish and colonies of coral are right there in front of you. At some points, you feel like you need to get your arms out in front of you to push the kelp away so you can see the wonders ahead. The camera work is amazing. When you consider how difficult the environment is for taking these pictures, you just have to shake your head and wonder at how they pulled this off. You know the equipment must be large and imposing yet the animals don't seem to notice. Of course you know they did and it is the skill and patience of the filmmakers that makes this work. It is so clear. I have trouble getting scenes in focus with my auto-focus camera. How do you do it hundreds of feet below the ocean surface with hundreds of subjects to focus on? So you not only marvel at the beautiful images but, if you're like me, you marvel at the technical aspects of this movie, too.

I took a class in marine biology in college but all we ever saw were animals that we were able to dredge up on a short visit to the Duke Marine Lab in North Carolina and the organisms in the small aquarium in our lab and pictures in books. This movie should be a requirement for anyone thinking of studying the oceans. It makes you understand how something as vast and diverse as the ocean can also be so fragile and in need of our stewardship. To see a more extensive website devoted to this movie, see this page at the IMAX website.

Two more things before I finish. One pleasant surprise was the narrator. Jim Carrey does a really good job. When I first saw his name on the opening credits, I worried that we were in for a bunch of goofy voices and silly jokes but Mr. Carrey just spoke clearly and eloquently. He seemed as amazed as we were at what we were seeing. But one other thing that I wish would have been different was the 3D glasses. For a normal 3D movie, these glasses would be fine but for an IMAX movie, I found myself wishing they were bigger. Yes, you could move your head to look at different part of the huge screen but I find one of the nice things about IMAX movies is that your peripheral vision kicks in and makes you feel like the movie is all around you. With the normal 3D glasses, I just felt like the movie was in front of me. But it was still a fantastic experience and I highly recommend it.