Short Review

It says something about the assembly-line quality of the IMAX nature documentaries that Howard Hall’s Under the Sea 3D is both dazzling and perfunctory. The underwater images are pristine, and the schools of three-dimensional fish are almost tactile, but this oceanic floor feels too familiar. Under the Sea is everything you’d expect—bizarre creatures, a celeb (Jim Carrey) narrating with hushed reverence, and a well-meaning, noncommittal environmental message for the youths (don’t worry, we’ll have that ravaged ecosystem patched up any day now, kids … no harm, no foul!). However, there are several beautiful shots of undersea New Guinea and the Great Barrier Reef, including a pair of mating cuttlefish and a forest of eels wavering in the current.