Planet Ocean Review

• 15th Apr 2013

Starting at Shark Bay, Australia – Planet Ocean tracks the origins of being from microscopic level and somehow ends up looking at the potential catastrophes ahead of us thanks to the shifts in nature that mankind has caused in their disturbances of the cycle of life.

The first half does plunder the depths and tell familiar tales about the ecological system, and the majority of it is basically telling us how life has thrived, survived and evolved, and most importantly how the cycle works and has done for many a millennia. We come into this with our fishing and cultivating of what the ocean has to offer and naturally are upsetting the balance. And it’s in this imbalance where the effects are starting to show. Any fan of nature documentaries are not likely to learn all that much new in this section of the feature, although to fresh eyes and ears it will no doubt prove fascinating.

The second half which focusses more on what mankind is up to is where the more fresh and awareness raising material rests. The first half is very much you basic nature documentary – but is necessary to set up the world in which we live (like and good film should) before demonstrating and showing the threat and change that we are effecting.

It’s no small feat to put together the large amount of footage heeded to help drive the narrative and also to support the argument and cause of the documentary.  It can often come crumbling down if you don’t have the right script, or voice over artist.

Josh Duhamel provides the narrative and is affable enough, but can’t carry some of the written text sometimes as it is often a little cheesy sounding. They could have done with a polish of the script, or got in a more prestigious actor to do the heavy lifting for them. But it won’t offend anyone who has half an awareness of the subject matter anyway. And this is likely to appeal to documentary and nature enthusiasts anyway. But the quicker it is on television for the general public to stumble across and lap up the better as its message is sound.

Steven Hurst