Review of Earth: One Amazing Day

Decided to get out of the house and pay to see this on a "Giant Screen" (as advertised by the one theater multiplex playing it here in Folsom, California) and Dolby Atmos sound, as the few reviews that were out on rottentomatoes.com opening weekend were raves, mentioning its filmmakers' new camera techniques able to get amazing shots and close-ups of the animals featured, and the overall scope of its "one day on Earth" theme. Sounded like a good film to get out and see on a big screen, rather than wait for a home-theater viewing. As it turned out, even the credits were a bit fuzzy on that big of a screen, and some of its shots of the Earth were, too (it was definitely not the theater's projection being out of focus, by the way, as some shots were sharply-focused). The film feels scattershot and uneven, as the "day on Earth" theme is loosely portrayed (Robert Redford being the primary narrator--he does an O.K. job, but nothing special, and he doesn't even sound that interested in the subject matter or the animals) as an excuse to jump all over the planet without much logic or thought, apparently to cobble together the animal footage they did successfully get on film. While there are some humorous and amazing shots of pandas munching on bamboo and bears scratching their backs vigorously on trees, the filmmakers seem most fascinated by the crueler moments of the "circle of life" that go on in nature. Here's where I need to mention that I'm not someone who is unaware of, or has my head buried in the sand about, how cruel and downbeat nature can be, but I'm also aware of just how incredible and miraculous it can be, too. I didn't need to see (as only two vivid examples) too-lengthy scenes and close-ups of dozens of snakes chasing down and munching on baby iguanas over and over just as they emerge from the sand after birth and struggle to get to rocks the snakes can't climb, and two male giraffes beating the crap out of each other to see who gets to be dominant. I see enough of that kind of cruelty, free, on TV and in online news daily, especially in the human world. The filmmaking was decent, but frankly not as spectacular as I expected from the reviews I'd read, and the film's structure was, for me, truly lacking, so the bad overcame the good and I left completely depressed and unsatisfied, wishing I could've gotten a refund.