WINGED MIGRATION (2003)
It's kind of hard to rate
Winged Migration in a way. It would be like rating a documentary on the Discovery Channel. I remember when this movie was in theaters I thought, "A documentary on birds? How boring! I never want to see that." But then when it hit video in November 2003, the cover art was just so beautiful and eye catching, that I actually became somewhat interested in it. It still wasn't something I was eager to see, and I put off seeing it for a while, but eventually I did end up checking it out.
Being a cinematography buff, the movie was probably more interesting for me than it might be for some. Although most that have seen it liked/loved it, a lot of them were interested in seeing the movie just knowing it was a documentary on birds. I don't know what some of the more mainstream audiences would think. I'm sure several would find it boring, and others would find it interesting. I actually found it interesting, which probably has a lot to do with me being able to get into movies that are visually interesting. This is one gorgeous movie, and those who like to look at pretty things should be into this film. I found it to be all about the visual style. Some scenes were really impressive and left me thinking "Wow, how did they get that shot?"
There's a scene where an injured bird can't fly and is trying to get away from these sand crabs, and it's trying and trying to run away from them, but it can't go fast enough and is eventually eaten alive by them. This scene had me screaming on the inside, "Get away from it you damn crabs!" I wanted to kill the crabs and rescue the bird from them, but that's kind of impossible to do when this is going on on your TV, and has already happened. It made me think though, "How could the filmmakers just stand by and film this without stepping in and rescuing it or something?" I know I wouldn't be able to watch it happen, I'd want to do something. But that's just me.
The movie really doesn't give you THAT much info on birds, just a few tidbits here and there, but it really didn't matter, because I was more happy just watching the beautiful shots and didn't care about any of the info they'd occasionally mention. If you think you could get into it visually, even if you think a documentary on birds sounds boring, I'm sure you'll enjoy it. It goes by pretty fast, and I was never really bored. This actually would have been pretty cool to see on the big screen. It might be like you were flying high with them.
Technically, the movie is empty, relying on its looks to get by. But since its looks are so great and make a subject that sounds like a yawn-inducer interesting, I really can't complain. And you have to applaud the filmmakers for putting what was obviously a lot of work into this film. It took a lot of time, and as you can see by watching it, a lot of hard work.
While I didn't love the film, it managed to hold my interest with its beautiful eye candy and I liked it overall.
Grade: 7/10 (B-)
