MOVIE REVIEW : IMAX Stars Fragile Earth

There is a perception, shared by far too many people, that the environment is a local concern. Smog is a problem in Los Angeles, sewage stinks in San Diego and the destruction of rain forests is something for Brazilians to debate.

If nothing else, “Blue Planet,” the new IMAX film that opened at the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater Friday, graphically and dramatically illustrates the big picture. Powerful footage shot during several space shuttle flights fuels the film, a look at the planet’s fragile ecosystems.

“To look at Earth from (space) is to discover a completely new planet,” narrator Toni Myers says at one point.

This is a movie all children should see. With few frills, beyond the often stirring photography, it is a primer lesson in the delicate balance that sustains life on Earth. With sledgehammer subtlety it makes it clear that man is the greatest threat to that balance.

Older folks, inundated with horror stories about the ozone layer and global warming, may be too jaded to let the simplistic message sink in. That would be too bad. It’s a message that needs to be heard, no matter how often it is repeated and how simply it is delivered.

The 42-minute “Blue Planet,” produced by Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum and the Lockheed Corp., in cooperation with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, won’t win any awards for imagination.

With the tone of an elementary school film strip, it takes the audience through the interaction of the Earth’s plants and animals with the forces of nature, which together sustain the atmospheric structure that supports life.

Before Tuesday’s screening for the press, Space Theater Executive Director Jeffrey Kirsch said the goal of the science centers was to make films that “move people.” In that sense, the film is an unqualified success.

It’s hard not to be emotionally affected when an astronaut describes his reaction to seeing the “thin blue line” of atmosphere that separates the planet from oblivion, while a glowing image of a sunset shot from the space shuttle is projected on the screen.

Intellectually, though, the film is far from stimulating, at least for anyone over the age of 10. The basic reports about the tropical rain forests and the diminishing ozone layer have been reported thousands of times, even if the message still hasn’t sunken in with many people. The film doesn’t add any real weight to the problems, beyond the plodding message of impending doom.

“There is a new force as threatening as any in nature--we are that force,” the narrator says.

As is often the case with IMAX films, the primary redeeming value is the spectacular photography. In IMAX, footage of a volcano can be more fun than Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. Boiling lava and ash fill the screen, with the pumped up audio roaring into the ears of the audience. From the tropical rain forests to the glaciers of the North Pole, the footage never falls short of spectacular. A computer-animated roller-coaster ride up the length of the San Andreas Fault provides a jolting 90-second diversion, thanks to the large-screen format.

The hook, the thing that makes “Blue Planet” special, is the footage shot from space during seven different space shuttle missions. Amazing close-up shots of land masses spectacularly illustrate the environmental message.

However, this is a far cry from the “Hail Columbia!” and “The Dream is Alive,” earlier films that successfully utilized space shuttle astronauts as IMAX photographers. Those films told tales of the space-shuttle missions, using the stunning IMAX photography to dramatize events.

“Blue Planet” uses the space shuttle photography as little more than a stupendous video map, illustrating landmarks.

“This is not as rah-rah as the other space shuttle films,” astronaut Kathy Sullivan said at a screening for the media last week. “It’s very different than ‘The Dream is Alive,’ but it may be more important.”

Judging by the post-screening comments, the producers seem to be aware that this requires a leap of patience by an audience that might be expecting more of the story lines from the earlier films as well as dramatic conclusions.

“There are no single answers or statements of the problem” in the film, Sullivan said. “There isn’t a single statement sentence summarizing the movie, nor is there a single step that can be taken.

“If anything, it prods you to look further, to learn more. I think that is an important message.”

“Blue Planet” screens at the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater several times daily through the spring. A combination ticket, which includes admission to the Science Center, costs $5.50 for adults, $4 for seniors and $3 for juniors (ages 6-17). For more information, you can call 238-1168.