Today's Review: Amazonia 3D

Wrote another review for MovieScene a while back, it finally got published today:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/152048/amazonia_-_recensie

A mixed bag, this film. The storialized aspect shouldn't be the main draw, that would be the spectacular wildlife photography, as is usual for documentaries. This movie isn't 100% documentary stuff though, which is probably a mistake, since the natural imagery would have been enough to make it worthwhile (both regular and in 3D), yet now you have a plot of sorts getting in the way of that to appeal to a younger audience. That said, I'm glad this movie didn't try to evade the issue at hand, namely the destruction of the rain forest and the loss of all its beauty (and dangers) for human short term greed. It takes a while for that issue to be addressed and the focus on that topic is rather brief but thoroughly effective, as the grim look of a demolished jungle is shocking for all ages, and hopefully succeeds in convincing all ages of the necessity of ending deforestation. Good message, but not perfect execution.

Anaconda

Rating ***/*****, or 7/10

Fun creature flick with a surprisingly good cast considering the fairly typical subject matter. A film crew heads deep into the lush Amazon rain forest to document an indigenous tribe, but on the way stumble on a seemingly lost poacher (Jon Voight performing with a rather silly accent). It soon turns out the guy intends to capture a giant anaconda snake alive and has no moral qualms about sacrificing the documentarists one at a time to achieve his goal. With both the ever more violent poacher and the supersnake (a clearly but effective combination of puppets and CGI) picking the crew off, can camera woman Jennifer Lopez save the day? Though the movie offers little narrative surprises and has an obviously artificial creature as the major threat, it makes up for it with decent acting, solid action and a damn fine score. This movie got no less than three totally unnecessary sequels.

Starring: Jennifer Lopez, Jon Voight, Ice Cube

Directed by Luis Llosa

USA: Cinema Line Film Corporation, 1997