Antarctica offers beautiful and entertaining big-screen experience

Arts Web Exclusive

Getting the chance to visit Antarctica was always on my bucket list. But even if it’s not on yours, Antarctica (opening Saturday at IMAX at the Royal BC Museum) is a truly beautiful and entertaining experience from beginning to end. It also shows ways to protect our planet and reduce emissions that cause climate change by keeping our Antarctic ocean wildlife vibrant and alive.

Antarctica has so many great impressions and close-up views of wildlife; you’ll absolutely want to experience these on the big IMAX screen. I had almost forgotten how much fun movies on a big screen are, and this movie reminded me why.

Antarctica opens tomorrow at the IMAX theatre in Victoria (image from film courtesy of BBC NHU).

Antarctica is full of little jokes, interesting facts, and pictures of wildlife we can only dream of seeing once in our lives. And a big plus are the visuals, which really draw you into the scenes (I almost felt like I was going to touch that sea lion).

I learned a lot in the movie’s 45 minutes—for example, depending on its size, a whale population can soak up the same carbon dioxide emissions as two Amazon rainforests in a year. That blew me away, and it also got me wondering why we aren’t thinking more about using our natural resources to help stop global warming. This movie provides lots to think about for all of us, especially you future politicians.

It’s also a good movie to go to with your younger siblings or the whole family since there are no cruel scenes in it. Don’t get me wrong—there are a couple of moments where you hold your breath and wait for that heartbreaking moment, which a lot of documentaries have. But Antarctica is more hope than heartbreak.

The filmmakers draw you into the story of what the life cycle of a female penguin is like in Antarctica, but then also show you all those massive impressions of underwater ice, and then let you dive with a seal, and then just make you in awe of large humpback whales… I felt like I had been with the expedition team the day I saw the movie.

So, I visited Antarctica—there’s a check on my bucket list—and I highly recommend you visit it as well when the movie opens this weekend.