8.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Our understanding of ocean life has completely changed since The Blue Planet aired in 2001. Travelling from the icy polar seas to the vibrant blues of the coral atolls, Blue Planet II shares these astonishing new discoveries. Meet the strange octopuses lurking in the depths of the Antarctic ocean. Watch giant trevally fish leap to catch birds in mid-air. And ride on the back of a hammerhead shark as it attacks.
Starring: David AttenboroughDocumentary | 100% |
Nature | 88% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Three-disc set (3 BDs)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Prolific BBC Nature Narrator Sir David Attenborough (Life, Planet Earth) returns to the recording studio and the water to lend his vocal talents to the gorgeous, majestic, and captivating Blue Planet II, the follow-up to 2001's highly regarded The Blue Planet. While nature documentary fatigue feels like a very real thing in isolation, there's an organic, almost magnetic draw to these sorts of programs. The wonders of the world, which these days is described as "small," are really stretched quite far and wide and, in many cases in Blue Planet II, very deep. Great advances in technology have made not just witnessing, but experiencing, these wonders a much more intimate adventure. Gone are the days of simply aiming a camera at a creature; this film is on the cutting-edge of video capture technology, and the result is a breathtaking journey through the world's waters and visits with numerous creatures, large and small, recognizable and alien, and even if the film is structurally not all that different from its many predecessors, the magic materializes from the first minutes and the draw doesn't dissipate until the final fade on another first-rate exploration of this watery globe that is home to more than 7 billion people and certainly countless more numbers of exciting and diverse undersea creatures.
Livin' the Life.
Blue Planet II looks very nice, generally, but the image, which has understandably been cobbled together from several sources of varying
qualities, does occasionally exhibit some visual drawbacks. From the opening shot featuring Attenborough introducing the program, some banding is
visible in the sky behind and it's very prominent elsewhere throughout the show, including some underwater shots and very noticeably on the opening
title card. Some aerial shots reveal significant artifacts (episode one, 19:40), while a few challenging dark underwater shots (episode one, 23:00)
reveal heavy, clumpy noise.
But these are generally brief issues that are obvious but certainly not killer, particularly given the grace and majesty of the rest of the presentation.
Overall image clarity and color vibrance are at the same time striking. Surface shots are unsurprisingly abundantly detailed. Water appears particularly
striking, with slow motion shots revealing every drop, especially those that are part of big splashes, with crispness to spare. Topside creatures are
revealed to the
finest feather or bit leathery hide. Underwater photography, not at depth, additionally delivers nearly the same level of sharpness, where
fish of all types and sizes, coral, and dusty and pebbly terrain rarely want for significantly more definition and sharpness, right on down to some of the
most visually interesting, and very small, details on various fish. It's really only at depth, or in high overhead shots above the water's surface, where
the image can suffer from many of the problems noted above.
Colors are bountiful and abundant, presenting with striking saturation and vividness that reveal blue skies and water with about as much pop and
intensity as the 1080p format can muster. The subtle variation in shades of water, the veritable rainbow of colors that appear on fish and coral, and
occasional support colors such as natural above-water greenery all shine. Color stability falls off a bit at deeper depths but that's to be expected. While
the occasional shot understandably suffers, the bulk of the image dazzles with top-rate color, clarity, and sharpness.
Blue Planet II's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack is active and alive, bringing ocean waves, deep underwater bass, creature sounds, and other niceties to life with impressive stage saturation, across the front and through the rears as well. Even without the benefit of overhead channels, there is a very significant sense of top end rush to several key moments -- big waves, underwater depth -- and the stage often feels flooded as water splashes through with great force and greater clarity, even when accompanied by prodigious, stage-stretching and surround- intensive score. Musical clarity and low end accompaniment are just as satisfying as the natural and aquatic sounds. Narration presents without issue.
This three-disc set contains no traditionally labeled or accessed supplemental content, but the first six episodes do include Into the Blue, approximately 10 minute pieces which follow each episode and serve as, essentially, a behind-the-scenes exploration of the making of each episode. These segments explore the four-year journey behind making the movie: the project's purpose, the benefits of new diving and camera technologies, shooting treacheries (raging weather, leaking submersibles), deep ocean mysteries, and all of the moving parts necessary to bring the film together, shot by shot and segment by segment.
Blue Planet II may not be a standout in terms of basic presentation and in its most basic depictions of all that it explores, but it's a strong step forward in terms of the intimacy and clarity with which modern technology can reveal a previously mysterious world. The imagery is striking, the creatures are fun and colorful and much more complex and intelligent than man might assume, and the film does well to depict its subjects well beyond mere snapshots and allowing the audience to become involved in their daily routines, all thanks to a magnificently large, grand sight and sound experience. BBC's Blu-ray delivers, generally, exceptionally clear and sharp video. Audio is powerful. Supplements are limited to the ~10-minute features that play at the end of each episode. Very highly recommended.
2016
2019
2022
2018
2021
2023
2022
2017
2001
BBC / Narrated by David Attenborough
2009
The Complete Series
2006
The Original UK Series
2011
BBC
2011
IMAX Enhanced
2016
2013
2003
2004
2008
2018
IMAX Enhanced
2013