Volcanoes of the Deep Sea

Director Stephen Low takes the IMAX camera to the Atlantic and Pacific ocean floors, exploring the volcanic heat vents and the strange creatures that live around them without benefit of sunlight. The narration (spoken by Ed Harris, and written by Stephen Low and Alex Low) is spotty and leaves questions unanswered. For example, the submersible craft, Alvin, is fitted with an IMAX camera, but we actually see Alvin diving and cruising around; who took those shots? Also, the film resorts to computer simulations without clarifying what’s real and what isn’t. Still, it’s the sort of thing IMAX does best, taking us to places we could never hope to see on our own, and the uncanny, otherworldly views we get are amazing and unforgettable. For that, we can forgive some lapses in technique and dropped lines of inquiry.