Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Mysteries of the Unseen World 3D Blu-ray Movie Review

Living in the Material World

Reviewed by Michael Reuben December 22, 2015

Anyone who attended grade school in the Fifties and Sixties will recall the Bell Science 16mm education films that provided a welcome break from the drudgery of math problems. Director Louis Schwartzberg's 3D IMAX feature, Mysteries of the Unseen World, is the contemporary equivalent. Sponsored by Lockheed Martin and produced by National Geographic and released to theaters in November 2013, the film covers extensive territory in its trim 39 minutes, though admittedly not in great depth. Its strength is its WOW! factor. Obviously aiming for the family audience, Schwartzberg and writer Mose Richards aim to appeal to the child in all of us. Tantalizing the eye with sights beyond the normal visual spectrum, they no doubt hope to inspire viewers, especially younger ones, to explore some of these subjects further.

Virgil Films has released Mysteries in a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack that is dramatic even in its 2D presentation. In 3D it will be a provocative learning experience, although some images might be frightening for younger kids. (The film is unrated.)

In 3D, this owl all but flies into your viewing room.

Forest Whitaker's easygoing but enthusiastic narration leads us through an everyday world of ordinary sights in re-creations cast with actors. Then he identifies four categories of things we cannot see, with the help of visual effects and actual photographs. They are: (1) areas of the spectrum that do not register on the human eye, although some animals have evolved to perceive them, as, for example, bees perceive ultraviolet to aid their gathering of pollen; (2) motion that proceeds too slowly to be perceptible, which is the province of time-lapse photography, an area for which Schwartzberg is particularly well-known; (3) motion that is too fast for the eye to take in, which requires high-speed photography; and (4) the microscopic, including images captured with an electron microscope that reveal alien landscapes right at our fingertips.

The expansion of the visible spectrum might appear to be well-trodden ground, but Mysteries finds new ways to explore it by demonstrating such practical applications as how a mosquito uses infrared perception to choose the likeliest spot to strike blood. Time-lapse photography reveals how mold configures its growth to optimize its chances of finding a new source of food. Plants seek light in ways that can only be observed when their slow motion is sped up.

Some of the most startling revelations occur when high-speed cameras capture what happens in the blink of an eye. Lightning turns out to be a two-way street, striking not just from the sky to the ground but also rising from the ground to the clouds. Drops of rain do not instantly merge into puddles but rest on the surface, then pop repeatedly into smaller and smaller drops. The four-winged dragonfly controls each of its wings independently, allowing a precision in flight beyond any other creature in nature and suggesting new possibilities for aerodynamics.

Streams of electrons are directed into spaces too tiny for light waves to penetrate, yielding images of sub-microscopic worlds of startling complexity: the calcium along the edge of an egg shell, bacteria (fortunately harmless) inhabiting a human belly button, a baby tick clinging to the leg of an adult specimen found on a household pet. Viewing substances at the atomic level allows them to be manipulated, one atom at a time, promising major breakthroughs in construction, medicine and other fields. By the end of Mysteries, one has that special sense of infinite possibilities conveyed by the best combinations of science and entertainment.

Schwartzberg and Richards conclude the film appropriately by returning to the ordinary world with a backyard family dinner (a birthday party, in fact), now overlaid by the many unseen dimensions coexisting simultaneously with the celebration in progress. They have shown us the possibilities and maybe expanded some younger viewers' imaginations.

Mysteries of the Unseen World 3D Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Photographraphed in IMAX by documentary specialist Sean MacLeod Phillips (Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon), Mysteries of the Unseen World is an interesting hybrid of live-action footage and computer graphics. The live-action sequences involve, first, the bridging sections with actors playing the family members who unite at the end for the birthday celebration, and second, the various time-lapse, high-speed, infrared and other specialized photographic captures that reveal otherwise unseen phenomena. (Some of these are vintage historical clips, which are typically small rectangles within the larger IMAX frame.) The computer graphics are used either for explanatory diagrams or, in the latter section of the film, to animate the output of electron microscopy, which only produces still images. (The process is explored in the disc's extras.) Post-production was completed on a digital intermediate, where these various sources were harmonized and from which Virgil Film's 1080p, MVC-encoded Blu-ray was presumably sourced. (In 2D play, the disc reads as AVC-encoded.)

In 2D, the image is clean, sharp, detailed and colorful, as befits the high resolution source. The colors of the nature photography are especially rich, even in sequences (such as the time-lapse of rotting strawberries) that may make some viewers squirm. The artistically hued magnifications of such sights as a fruitfly's eye are sights that could rival H.R. Giger for nightmarish visions, though thankfully the film's editors do not linger on any of these for too long.

In 3D, the live-action photography acquires an additional sense of spaciousness from the additional depth, and certain shots have obviously been staged to take advantage of the extra dimension: an early scene where a young girl aims a garden hose in the camera's direction; a time-lapse of roses effectively popping out of their pot (and the frame); a coiled snake striking, in slow motion, directly at the viewer; a majestic owl swooping, again in slow motion, down toward the camera. Graphics and synthesized images, such as those from an electron microscope, provide a less startling impact, but the additional depth often helps clarify the many layers of detail, especially in images that are, by their very nature, foreign to anyone's daily experience. Both versions provide a satisfying viewing experience, with a slight edge to the 3D. Mysteries was made for a giant IMAX screen, but it has translated well to the home theater.

Mysteries of the Unseen World 3D Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The chief components in Mysteries' 5.1 soundtrack, encoded on Blu-ray in lossless DTS-HD MA, are Forest Whitaker's narration, which is always clear, and Paul Haslinger's (Underworld, Death Race) lively score, which is always tuneful with broad dynamic range. Additional sound effects are blended in as necessary to accompany specific events depicted onscreen: background chatter, thunder, the buzzing of a mosquito, etc.

Mysteries of the Unseen World 3D Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Making of Mysteries of the Unseen World (1080p; 1.78:1; 17:05): The title of this extra is somewhat misleading. It consists of two parts: a trailer and a short featurette devoted to the film's images taken by an electron microscope. These were captured by a team working at the University of Basel in Switzerland, who describe the elaborate process of preparing samples, rendering multiple images and creating a 3D effect for IMAX from the output. This included coloring the gray results, because an electron microscope does not "see" color.



• Photo Gallery (1080p; various): Sixteen images, each of them labeled by subject and degree of magnification.

Mysteries of the Unseen World 3D Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Mysteries of the Unseen World is the rare combination of education and spectacle that succeeds on both counts. If, as seems possible, the support for 3D Blu-ray feature releases declines, the disc is an excellent alternative and may even inspire someone in your household to learn more about some of the subjects covered in the documentary. Highly recommended.