Bioluminescent Disco Fish! A review of Deep Blue (2003)

Despite seeing fascinating creatures that had never before been caught on film, Deep Blue (Official Site) left me feeling like I'd just watched a pretty screensaver with a nice (if somewhat overwhelming at times) orchestral score rather than a documentary.

(Continues...)

Perhaps I should've read the press release first, so I would've known to expect that rather than something with more than a sprinkling of narration to let you know the who, what, where, why, when & hows of what was happening on screen:

"What "Microcosmos" did for creepy crawlies and "Travelling Birds" did for our feathered friends, "Deep Blue" now does for ocean dwellers. An offshoot of David Attenborough's much-admired BBC docu series "The Blue Planet," this majestic film has all the hallmarks of Beeb quality workmanship -- jaw-dropping, sumptuous visuals, a lush George Fenton score, state-of-the-art technology and some of the oddest creatures ever seen without recourse to artificial stimulants.

Shot on a $5 million budget over three years at a range of locations -- including the Maldives, Azores, Cayman Islands and Bermuda -- pic is structured in 22 sections, each focusing on an aspect of ocean life, and each with its own mood. Like "Winged Migration," the film is more interested in generating emotion than supplying fact."

There're fish, dolphins, polar bears, sharks, whales, penguins, that footage of orcas attacking sea lions on a beach, sea birds and crabs, all of which you've probably seen before. What really grabbed me were the bioluminescent creatures down in the deepest parts of the oceans and in the Marianas Trench (considered an extremely toxic environment that nothing should be able to live in); some had disco lights, some looked like the UFOs from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, while others shot something out of their body like a laser bolt, which then exploded like a flash-bang to disorient and confuse potential predators - very cool.

Deep Blue
Rated: Unrated (showing as part of the Canberra International Film Festival)
Running Time: 90 min
Seen: Electric Shadows, Civic, ACT, 06 Nov 04, 6.30pm session.
Distributor: Hopscotch
Opens nationally in December