Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

The Last Reef: Cities Beneath the Sea 4K + 3D Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 30, 2016

There’s a brief, shining moment early on during The Last Reef: Cities Beneath the Sea when the hopeful viewer might think, “Whew— this isn’t going to be another depressive tale of a rapidly disappearing habitat.” Somewhat hilariously, this “hope” plays out against images of nuclear bombs going off, for in an intentionally whimsical opening sequence, The Last Reef: Cities Beneath the Sea weaves together quasi- newsreel footage that includes everything from nuclear test sites in the south Pacific to the (not so coincident) emergence of the bikini. The sight of a mushroom cloud thrusting its nuclear fist up angrily at the sky which plays to La Mer, the French chestnut by Charles Trenet, may perhaps intentionally recall a somewhat similar conceit in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, an odd reference which wouldn’t seem to be the typical fare for a large format “nature” spectacular. Ironically the information being imparted here is how the coral reefs around the Bikini Atoll had an almost miraculous resurrection after nuclear tests in the area left everything radioactive and hardly fit for any kind of life. Of course this “joy” is short lived, for the ever portentous narration warns that a greater threat than nuclear holocaust awaits this fascinating undersea life form.

There’s a perhaps questionable conceit throughout The Last Reef: Cities Beneath the Sea which seeks to contrast “top side” urban environments with the seemingly more placid locales under the sea, something that tends to give the documentary a kind of Koyaanisqatsi feeling, albeit without a pulsing minimalist score by Philip Glass. The above the ground sequences are generally short, and often use time lapse photography (another tip of the hat toward Godfrey Reggio’s The Qatsi Trilogy), and the segues are often on the tangential side. The real information here is much more compelling when the documentary stays submerged, as it commendably does for most of the piece’s rather short running time.

After the weirdly hopeful opening “newsreel”, the threats to coral reefs are at least hinted at, though it’s notable that perhaps because as the documentary itself states, “nature is resilient”, The Last Reef: Cities Beneath the Sea takes a while to actually getting around to detailing those threats. Instead, a long interstitial series of vignettes details a lot of rather fascinating information about all sorts of undersea life, with coral reefs at the center of it all. The first interesting item comes courtesy of what exactly early explorers thought coral should be categorized as—rock or plant? It turns out neither is correct, for these fascinating multicolored extravaganzas are actually colonies of animals called polyps.

The documentary weaves factoids like coral’s ability to get 90% of its energy from sunlight into shots of busy urban environments like New York City where Mankind’s unquenchable thirst for electricity has created manifold problems. There are tangential but at least somewhat compelling inferences drawn in some of these “contrast and compare” segments, but again the documentary tends to offer its most intriguing content when it “goes deep”. There are great little sequences devoted to fascinating undersea life like flatworms, whose paper thin bodies make them look like soggy leaves warping in the ocean, or, later, an isolated colony of jellyfish who are part of an entourage in Palau that no longer has to face predators due to their separation from the ocean and who spend their days lolling about in lakes feasting on sunlight.

Because the documentary tends to be made up of shorter sequences, some of which play out to very little narration, The Last Reef: Cities Beneath the Sea tends to feel almost like a music video at times, albeit a rather “wet” one. Finally, though, those threats to coral reefs are detailed as the documentary wends toward its endgame. There are of course manifold issues the documentary points out, including pollution, bacteria from sewage, the removal of mangrove fields and most distressingly the so-called “bleaching” of oceans due to rising sea temperatures, something that kills the algae on which coral reefs feed. All of this “doom and gloom” would seem to be undercut by the documentary’s own assertions about the resiliency of nature, but there’s no mistaking the kind of auguring of incipient disaster which The Last Reef: Cities Beneath the Sea hints at.

The Last Reef: Cities Beneath the Sea 4K + 3D Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc. Watch for 4K screenshots at a later date.

This two disc version of The Last Reef: Cities Beneath the Sea contains a 4K UHD disc offering The Last Reef: Cities Beneath the Sea with an HEVC / H.265 encoded 2160p transfer in 1.78:1, and another standard Blu-ray disc offering AVC (2D) and MVC (3D) encoded 1080p transfers in 1.78:1 (some brief sequences are in narrower aspect ratios, including parts of the opening "newsreel" section). This continues the rather interesting marketing approach Shout! Factory has employed with several previous 4K UHD releases, including Flight of the Butterflies 4K + 3D, Humpback Whales 4K + 3D and Journey to Space 4K + 3D.

As with Shout!'s other 4K UHD releases, it's possible to watch The Last Reef: Cities Beneath the Sea in either HDR or SDR. For the purposes of this review, the HDR version was watched. This is overall a stunning video presentation, one which offers a glut of gorgeously nuanced tones in the teal to turquoise ranges as the documentary plies the waters of several exotic locations. As with Humpback Whales, the undersea photography is amazingly clear at times, offering superb views of the various textures of life forms, from the scraggly looking coral to the rubbery looking bodies of several fish that almost resemble aliens at times. Some of the colors of the coral reefs are almost mind blowing in their vividness, with contrasts between deep blues and reds especially notable. Just as impressive are some of the relatively brief views of urban environments like Manhattan, where clarity is exceptional and depth of field quite remarkable. There are some very minor stability issues that crop up as in one moment where an aerial view of Manhattan zooms out and there's a bit of shimmer, but generally speaking this is a flawless presentation that should easily delight most videophiles.

While there's a definite downturn in detail levels on the standard Blu-ray, the video presentation is still extremely impressive, at least in the 2D iteration (for more of my thoughts on this version, please see our The Last Reef: Cities Beneath the Sea Blu-ray review). The 3D iteration never really is able to exploit much depth (no pun intended), since so much of the documentary takes place under water. Here, dimensionality is typically achieved pretty much solely through foreground elements like bubbles or dirt floating in front of whatever is ostensibly the focus of the scene. This achieves at least acceptable levels of planes of depth, but it's never really very overwhelming. Similarly, the above the water scenes provide decent if baseline levels of dimensionality.

The Last Reef: Cities Beneath the Sea 4K + 3D Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Last Reef: Cities Beneath the Sea offers a great sounding Dolby Atmos track (with a Dolby TrueHD 7.1 core). While this isn't a carnival of sound effects, there is consistent immersion (again, no pun intended) and surround activity due to the virtually nonstop music score, one which tends to ply a kind of Cirque du Soleil ambience, with "world music" proclivities that tend to offer massed percussion, including loud LFE-ish thunks of what sounds like a Taiko drum, as well as other colorful instruments like dulcimers. There's very nice attention paid to positioning individual instruments in discrete channels (that dulcimer for example emanates from the rear channels on occasion). Otherwise, there's not much to talk about in terms of the sound design, for the narration is understandably anchored front and center and all other elements tend to be in the ambient environmental category. The documentary does tend to "breathe" at moments, quieting the music and letting subtler sounds like the lap of waves on beaches or the gentle rustling of breezes fill the surround channels. Fidelity is excellent and there are no problems of any kind to address in this review.

As I've discussed in previous reviews of these combo 4K + 3D releases from Shout! Factory, those attempting to watch the 3D version on a PS3 will encounter a "hidden" Dolby Digital 5.1 audio option, since the PS3 can't handle 3D in concert with lossless Dolby tracks. Also, for the record, the 4K UHD disc contains DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks in Spanish and French, while the 2D/3D Blu-ray features the foreign language tracks in Dolby Digital 5.1.

The Last Reef: Cities Beneath the Sea 4K + 3D Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Both the 4K UHD disc and the combo 2D/3D Blu-ray disc contain the same supplemental material:

• Behind the Scenes:

  Ocean Acidification (1080p; 2:44)

  Filming in Bimini (1080p; 1:56)

  Editing and Scoring (1080p; 2:52)

  Jellyfish Lake (1080p; 2:22)

  Macro Filming in Palau (1080p; 3:37)

  Reef and the City (1080p; 2:16)

  Statues Under the Sea (1080p; 2:04)

• Picture Gallery (1080p; 2:25)

Additionally, trailers for other Shout! Factory IMAX releases are included.

The Last Reef: Cities Beneath the Sea 4K + 3D Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's a bit of a disconnect between The Last Reef: Cities Beneath the Sea'a assertion that nature is inherently resilient and its simultaneous warning that disaster is imminent, but if you're able to look past that logical disparity, this documentary offers visual delights galore and quite a bit of fascinating information. This is one of the most impressive looking large format documentaries Shout! has released and even those not agreeing with its environmental angle may find this reference quality material in terms of video and audio. Recommended.