Movie Review: Volcanoes of the Deep Sea (2003)
Synopsis: This documentary follows a team of researchers as they take a submarine thousands of feet under the ocean floor to search for a "living fossil" believed to live in or near underwater volcanoes. The movie also discusses the other sea creatures that thrive in an area that wouldn't normally be expected to sustain life.
Who's in it? The film is narrated by Ed Harris.
Review: My wife and I discovered Volcanoes of the Deep Sea while I was scrolling through movies available on ScreenPix (which I recently added). She's had an interest in documentaries recently and we needed something to watch while having dinner, so I gave it a try. While not quite what we were expecting, it ended up being an informative film.
I think I can safely say I know about as much about volcanoes as the average person and when we started watching this, I figured it would feature a whole lot of explosions and lava (despite the fact I should have known better considering the film takes place underwater). Instead, the movie changed my perception of volcanoes by providing compelling evidence they are potentially the source of all life.
I have always found it amazing how certain creatures can live at ocean depths that would instantly crush an unprotected human and frankly, don't even want to try to understand the science that makes that possible. This movie added to that intrigue by showing how some of those creatures are not only surviving the crushing water pressure, but they are also able to withstand intense heat that would boil us alive and even create an entire ecosystem that includes everything from creatures that survive on minerals from the volcano to creatures that eat those creatures.
Some of the rock structures surrounding the volcanoes were also really cool to see. As my wife agreed, there were times when it looked like we were looking at a lost and sunken human civilization when it was just formations that were naturally formed by cooling lava.
I had some mixed feelings about the reason for the expedition. It was kind of cool that the Paleodictyon nodosum might have lived on Earth longer than any other creature and still survived but it also kind of got lost in the shuffle until the very end. It also didn't help that they didn't find the creature, just the honeycomb-like formation they are believed to create. In other words, it's something that maybe didn't need to be in the movie at all.
Final Opinion: It's an educational film with some great underwater videos that show proof of life being possible just about anywhere on this planet. It didn't have the volcanic explosions we were hoping for but it was still worth taking the time to watch.
My Grade: A
__________________________________________________________________________
Here are some reviews of other documentaries:
Movie Review: Lynching Postcards: Token of a Great Day (2021)
Comments
Post a Comment