Planet Earth II

i've never been to earth II, but judging by this material, it pretty much looks identical.

They could make a new one of these every decade, and I would die a content old man.

Watching this reminded me of the time I saw 5 male ducks force a female from the sky and gang-rape her. Just one 'downing' -not loads cut together- no over-done wing-noise and splash foley in place of screams and feather-ripping sounds, just wind in place of dramatic orchestral music, and none of it in slow-motion. For all their thrills and incredible cinematography, at some level these things have become as grotesque as those manicured national trust ruins. The Disney ones are far, far worse.

I honestly never thought they'd be able to top the original Planet Earth. While this is less Earth shattering than the original (which was a giant leap from everything before it), it's without a doubt the best of its kind. The cinematography is just mind blowing, the score is fantastic, and the sound is almost unreal. And not to mention the diaries at the end of each episode are sometimes just as compelling as the show itself. Again, this is a must-watch for anybody who lives on Earth.

Too apparently attempts to recreate/copy the success of the previous edition(s). It still works, in a way, when a certain lizard is chased down by an approximate fuckton of snakes, but after a while these stories get stale or, more commonly, contrived.

i forget how the first series compares in this respect, but my unwillingness to shower this with as much praise as everybody else can be explained most succinctly by a quote from the makers, wherein they decided not to show penguins dying because they "look like little men in dinner jackets". it's breathtaking and fascinating as ever, but also over-narrated and kinda sanitised for family audiences - predators apparently almost never successfully catch their prey in this world of ours.

Focused once again on geographical milieus and their challenges, the photography is of course remarkable, but the images of hunter and prey, courtship, and raising of young are clearly prioritised over scientific insight. Resembling the cityscapes of KOYAANISQATSI, the final episode gently suggests the vast destruction wrought by human technogeographies, using turtle hatchlings disoriented by urban light to momentarily draw us out of our obliviousness to this fact. End of the Attenboroughcene.

So far so good, even closer and more stunning shots (if not as impactful or compelling story lines) make this a now two of a kind event, as far as quality nature docs go. Attenborough continues to be the best at what he does.

Meets high expectations, but doesn't manage to exceed the power of the first series (how could it?). More cinematic than PE1, but at times I found the more heightened sound effects and enhanced colour palate distancing, and the overuse of slow motion sometimes diluted the impact of hunting scenes. This time around the theme of each episode could almost be forgotten, as it seems secondary to the spectacular footage. The final chapter, "Cities", brings something new and is quite interesting.

The shots are 100/100 but I would enjoy this more with less narration and occasional dumb music