Susan Granger’s review of “Coral Reef Adventure” (IMAX Theater)
Only IMAX cameras have the ability to transport you into outer space and under the seas in an unforgettable giant-screen adventure. This time, you submerge with ocean divers delving into the mystery of why a coral reef near the coast of Fiji is dying. More than a lesson in reef biology, it’s the very personal, real-life story of a husband-and-wife cinematography team, Michele and Howard Hall, who answered the distress call of Fijian scientist Rusi Vulakoro and went on a 10-month journey to create a lasting cinematic record of the reefs as they exist today. The Halls’ first stop was the South Pacific where, using aerial photography, they discovered that a lethal combination of global warming, resulting in a two-degree increase in water temperature; over-fishing; and silt, a result of coastal logging, was covering Rusi Vulkoro’s village reef in a white, ashy blanket of death. Noting that observation is the first step in science, they then went to examine Australia’s protected Great Barrier Reef, where they found thriving corals whose fragile eco-systems are still intact. Coral reefs are over 100 million years old and are Earth’s largest living structures. They provide homes for over 25% of all marine life, yet take up less than 1% of the ocean floor. Coral reefs are a tremendous medical resource, providing chemical compounds used in antihistamines, antibiotics and other treatments ranging from asthma to leukemia and heart disease. Oceanographer Tracey Medway gets up-close-and-personal with an enormous potato cod who opens its mouth to allow a living toothbrush, a tiny wrasse fish, scrub the parasites off its teeth. That’s followed by a deliciously memorable sequence in which scuba-diver Michele Hall opens her mouth wide, inviting the shrimp-like sea creature to crawl inside and clean her teeth! Their final stop was in French Polynesia, where near the Rangiroa atoll they were forced to swim against a powerful current to find an elusive school of more than 300 gray reef sharks clustered in a narrow passage. All-in-all, the Halls made 2,421 dives, logged 2,810 hours underwater and had to spend up to four hours a day decompressing in order to make this film. The underwater footage is stunning. Lush, colorful whip and fan corals sway with the current, like immense flowers in a breeze, eels bare their powerful teeth, huge manta rays glide by, and a busy bulldozer shrimp clears a safe haven for its symbiotic protector fish. Written by Osha Gray Davidson and Stephen Judson, the diverse presentation’s the only weakness is out-of-the-water, where filmmaker Greg MacGillivray (“The Living Sea,” “Dolphins”) stages unconvincing shots of Vulakoro, the Halls and South Pacific children awkwardly interacting. The obviously contrived pathos is even more inopportune when the pressure of a 370′ deep-water dive causes Howard Hall to develop the bends, a potentially fatal build-up of nitrogen and helium bubbles in the blood, and production is halted for six weeks while he recovers in Fiji’s only hyperbaric chamber. Narrated by Liam Neeson, the cautionary tale flows – with particularly notable crossfades from a map to an ocean vista – and is punctuated by the pop music of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Its conclusion reveals that according to the United Nations’ Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network and Reef Check Network, 10% of the world’s reefs have died within the past four years and nearly a quarter are currently suffering. “Coral reefs are the canary in the coal mine, and the canary is sick and dying,” concludes Jean-Michel Costeau, son of the late oceanographer Jacques Cousteau. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Coral Reef Adventure” is a spectacular, exciting 8, delivering a vital ecological message that our coral reefs are in great danger and could cease to exist within the next 30 years.
