Forces of Nature Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Forces of Nature Blu-ray Movie Review

It may not be nice to fool Mother Nature, but it can't hurt to figure out why she does such destructive things.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 6, 2010

May 18, 1980. It was a quiet, sunny Sunday morning in Portland and I was puttering around my house, not doing much of anything. One of those pesky little voices in my head said, “Turn the television on,” which I typically never did on Sunday mornings, but this time I listened, and was amazed that I tuned in at the exact moment that Mt. St. Helens erupted. I got to see live television coverage of one of the most momentous examples of Mother Nature in all her destructive fury that could be imagined. Within just a few hours, Portland was literally blanketed in ash, a downfall so bad that visibility was minimal, and surgical masks almost became a necessary daily accessory. (There were actually somewhat humorous signs on many of the local banks asking people to remove their surgical masks before entering, lest they be mistaken for a robber). Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal came in for some pretty caustic commentary (at least up here in the Pacific Northwest) when in his infamous televised Republican response a couple of years ago he took the federal government to task for its funding of “volcano monitoring.” Of course, critics in the Northwest soon wondered if Jindal would be similarly concerned about “hurricane monitoring,” especially after the devastating effects of Katrina on his own state. The excellent National Geographic IMAX event Forces of Nature makes it quite clear that monitoring and hopefully ultimately forecasting such deadly events as volcano eruptions and tornadoes will someday lead to better safety precautions and scores of saved lives.

Heads up!!

Forces of Nature deals with three main types of devastating natural phenomena, volcanoes, earthquakes and tornadoes. Each of these three phenomena is dealt with in more or less discrete segments, and each features at least one scientist intent on discovering not only what causes these events, but how to properly forecast future outbreaks. Though this IMAX presentation begins with a nifty CGI segment showing a massive asteroid slamming into our planet, it quickly moves on to an equally interesting, real life depiction of the unbelievable fury of the 1995 eruption of Montserrat in the Leeward Islands, part of the Lesser Antilles chain in the Caribbean. For anyone who doubts the need for volcano monitoring, watching the astounding footage of Montserrat spilling out fumes and lava should be enough to convince them, especially when Forces of Nature describes the death and destruction which followed in the eruption’s wake. The footage of giant billowing plumes of smoke and ash spilling into the air seems strangely solid, almost as if we’re watching gray foam insulation being blown into the sky. The footage of devastated townships after the eruption is heartbreaking, though Forces of Nature celebrates, at least relatively speaking, the fact that “only” 19 lives were lost in the tragedy. Scientists brave the post-eruption cone of the volcano to place seismic monitoring stations, which will hopefully alert them to the next eruption and bring the mortality rate down even more.

From the Caribbean, we journey quite a way around the globe to Turkey, where a series of strong earthquakes has rumbled through the region, including an unimaginably destructive 7.4 quake in 1999 which more or less destroyed the Turkish city of Izmit. Seismologists are both intrigued and horrified to discover that for decades earthquakes have been a regular feature in the region, slowly moving westward, so that it’s quite likely that the 10 million inhabitants of Istanbul are going to be struck with an apocalyptic outbreak of the phenomenon sooner rather than later. In fact it turns out that, as in Izmit, Istanbul’s older structures, including the iconic Hagia Sophia, have stood up to both minor and major tremblors through the years, proving conclusively that modern, on the cheap construction techniques can’t hold a candle to the craftsmanship of old. One seismologist also discovers that the clerks of the Hagia Sophia actually kept repair records from many earthquakes, and so he is able to chart the geographic history of these events, showing how they’ve moved ever westward, a result of stresses journeying slowly along the gigantic North Anatolian Fault. Forecasting of earthquakes is even trickier than forecasting volcano eruptions, and the best that can be hoped for with current technology is a few seconds’ warning, enough to perhaps give people the chance to run for some kind of safe environment.

The last section of Forces of Nature may be the most familiar to those who regularly catch shows like Storm Chasers on Discovery. This sequence follows a group of intrepid, though perhaps a bit dunderheaded, explorers who are attempting to capture the actual birth of a tornado with two Doppler trucks simultaneously. This would be the first time this was ever accomplished, and due to the “triangulation” (albeit with only two devices) of getting data from different locations, some very salient scientific information might finally be gleaned as to why certain weather interactions lead to this swirling wind events. In fact it’s rather amazing to hear one of the chasers reveal that, despite our technologically advanced society, scientists still have basically no idea why tornadoes actually form. These particular chasers are very intent on their goal, but I used the term “dunderheaded” above for two reasons: in the film itself, one of them manages to drive one of the trucks off the road, getting it stuck in the mud just as a killer tornado is approaching, and in the end credits there’s a brief segment showing them as having locked themselves out of one of their cars. Maybe they’d do well to chase a little common sense.

Forces of Nature is a typically involving and well produced National Geographic feature, which offers superb visuals and a cogent narration by Kevin Bacon. Not only does the piece reveal the savage fury of Mother Nature at her most violent, it gives an uplifting account of those intrepid souls who are attempting to divine the secrets of some of the most destructive phenomena on our planet, and make future occurrences of these events less deadly.

Forces of Nature Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Like almost all of the features originally shot for IMAX, Forces of Nature's sterling AVC encoded 1080p image (in 1.78:1) looks stunning on this Blu-ray transfer. This NatGeo outing has a fair amount of CGI augmenting its actual live action footage, and those segments are sharp as a tack, with extremely well saturated color. Most of the film looks splendid indeed, with incredible detail and some amazing depth of field. There are a few scenes utilizing stock footage, and one brief segment after the Izmit quake taken from a camcorder, and those elements obviously do not have the high definition luster that the rest of this offering does. There's quite a bit of night and/or dark footage here, and contrast and black levels are excellent throughout. A couple of very brief moments of shimmer are the only noticeable artifacts in an otherwise top notch video presentation.

Forces of Nature Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Zowie! (That's a technical term). The lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix on this Blu-ray is astoundingly effective, starting out with a fantastic rear to front pan as a CGI asteroid zings overhead. Several earth shattering sonic booms rumble through the subwoofer with alarming alacrity throughout Forces of Nature. So why, tell me, would NatGeo default to the noticeably less robust Dolby Digital 5.1 mix at feature start-up? This odd proclivity was also noticed in some recent Topics titles I reviewed. I guess it's going to take some of these labels a while to figure out that Blu-ray aficionados want lossless audio and that the Dolby imprimatur may not be the selling point it was in times past. Be that as it may, Forces of Nature actually sports two (count 'em) lossless tracks, the aforementioned DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix, and an equally robust, if not quite as immersive, LPCM 2.0 mix. For a "mere" documentary, there's actually a wealth of surround activity throughout this feature, so if your home theater is set up for 5.1 or above, I highly recommend you opt for the DTS mix. Kevin Bacon's narration, as well as the voiceovers from the participating scientists, are anchored firmly in the front channels and are crisp and clear as a bell.

Forces of Nature Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

A decent, if fairly standard, SD Making of featurette (20:30) offers filmmaker George Casey describing what he went through to capture some of this amazing footage. Trailers for other NatGeo releases are also on tap.

Forces of Nature Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

National Geographic knows how to do this sort of release with its corporate hands tied behind its back. Forces of Nature is yet another exemplary offering, with astounding images and one of the most bombastic soundtracks in recent memory. It may be too short for some (clocking in at under 40 minutes), but it's a whirlwind journey through Mother Nature at her most violent, and it comes highly recommended.