Unlike most natural history films, this one does not set out to teach you anything (unless the lesson is simply the beauty and fecundity of the oceans, at which it succeeds admirably). It is pure visual spectacle - and what a spectacle! The images are of stunning beauty, sometimes almost surreal in their impact. In addition to just drinking them in, I spent a large part of my time thinking, "How on earth did they take THAT?" Some of the footage is obviously computer-generated (the mid-ocean ridges and chasms, where it's pitch-black and you couldn't possibly see what you're shown), and I wondered about some of the deep sea angler fish shots, but most of it equally clearly isn't. Some of the illuminated deep sea fish look like refugees from Spielberg's "Close Encounters".

I gave this film four stars rather than five, because I would have liked more explanation of what I was seeing. The commentary is minimal, which admittedly does have the advantage of letting you dwell on the magnificent images with which you're presented. The most telling bit of commentary comes at the end, when it is said that there remain only a few thousand blue whales, the biggest creature that has ever lived on earth. We are plundering and polluting a world that we barely understand. If this film doesn't turn you into a conservationist, desiring to preserve forever the beauty of this watery world, you are dead.