Glacier Meltdown
- Episode aired Jan 31, 2007
IMDb RATING
7.1/10
15
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Richard Alley
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Jonathan Overpeck
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Don Perovich
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Nicholas K. Coch
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Featured review
An MTV-style take on global warming that will give you a headache
"Naked Science: Glacier Meltdown" has to be the most unwatchably bad documentary (that wasn't an amateur hour production) I have ever seen.
The director, Nick Clarke Powell, seems to think he is directing a drug- addled MTV video, and that viewers can't possibly pay attention unless he throws in every special video and sound effect in his 2007 arsenal.
Most of the time there are about two shots per second, with most shots using sudden acceleration and deceleration of the film speed, combined with super fast zoom that instantly switches to super slow zoom. This is accompanied by a flash of electronic strobe lightning and a burst of electronic thunder, several times a minute, superimposed over a rapidly pulsating sound track. (Is this program safe for epileptics?)
The script seems to be reasonably organized, but it is extremely hard to follow with all these distractions, combined with a fairly loud music track that sometimes sounds as constantly menacing as Jaws. Whenever I am trying to focus my mind on an idea being discussed, the director seem more intent grabbing me by the shoulders and shaking me, which is very distracting.
To introduce a scientist they have him stand still while a camera circles around him a couple of times, with the speed shifting from slow to fast to slow, leaving the viewer, if not the scientific expert, dizzy. I don't know what they're thinking, but it seems like the camera work is trying to make it look like the scientists are on drugs -- it is really very insulting.
The narrator, Dominc Frisby, is not bad, but would not be my first choice for a science documentary. American documentaries usually go for the objective journalistic voice. But Frisby gives it the British tabloid treatment. With his tendency to drop R's from words like "water" and "year," his is not one of the more formal British accents.
What you've got is a documentary about the potential for a rise in sea level due to melting glaciers that could submerge the coastal areas of North America and elsewhere, which is pretty dramatic stuff. But instead of letting the facts and some good writing convey the drama, the director has chosen a style that is like putting five or 10 exclamation marks after every few sentences, with his intrusive lightning and thunder effects, which are far from subliminal.
Any professional writer or editor knows that resorting to overuse of exclamation marks is a sign of a really bad writer! A skilled writer creates the sense of exclamation through the proper choice of words and manipulation of the author's voice!! The over-dramatization!!!! and constant!!! video exclamation marks!!!!! employed by Nick Powell!!!!!! don't enhance!! the inherent drama!!! of the subject matter!!!!!!!, they distract!!!!! from it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
I saw this documentary packaged by National Geographic as "Earth Investigated: Earth Under Water." The title, alone, suggests that someone went into overdrive in the exaggeration department. Ummm, I don't think we are in for another Noah's flood. ("Naked Science" isn't much of an improvement, unless we are treated to some naked babes on glaciers.) This is not the sort of tabloid nonsense I expect from National Geographic. (edit: I see from the recent news coverage that Rupert "News of the World" Murdoch owns the National Geographic channel, so I guess people better get used to it.)
Perhaps some people actually like this sort of over-caffeinated approach to science documentaries. If you are on LSD, it will blow your mind!!!!! But I am a grown up, not an ADHD challenged teenager, and I found "Glacier Meltdown" extremely annoying and close to unwatchable. The tendency to exaggeration raised doubts in my mind about the credibility of the entire documentary. The last thing we need in the debate over global warming is to hand the skeptics ammunition.
Deep Ocean: The Final Frontier, aka Dangers of the Deep, is another one of those MTV-type documentaries from National Geographic.
What you've got here is a hybrid mix of MTV, Alfred Hitchcock, the sound track from Jaws, and British tabloid sensationalism. Earth Under Water deserves to be deep-sixed!!!!!!!!!!
The director, Nick Clarke Powell, seems to think he is directing a drug- addled MTV video, and that viewers can't possibly pay attention unless he throws in every special video and sound effect in his 2007 arsenal.
Most of the time there are about two shots per second, with most shots using sudden acceleration and deceleration of the film speed, combined with super fast zoom that instantly switches to super slow zoom. This is accompanied by a flash of electronic strobe lightning and a burst of electronic thunder, several times a minute, superimposed over a rapidly pulsating sound track. (Is this program safe for epileptics?)
The script seems to be reasonably organized, but it is extremely hard to follow with all these distractions, combined with a fairly loud music track that sometimes sounds as constantly menacing as Jaws. Whenever I am trying to focus my mind on an idea being discussed, the director seem more intent grabbing me by the shoulders and shaking me, which is very distracting.
To introduce a scientist they have him stand still while a camera circles around him a couple of times, with the speed shifting from slow to fast to slow, leaving the viewer, if not the scientific expert, dizzy. I don't know what they're thinking, but it seems like the camera work is trying to make it look like the scientists are on drugs -- it is really very insulting.
The narrator, Dominc Frisby, is not bad, but would not be my first choice for a science documentary. American documentaries usually go for the objective journalistic voice. But Frisby gives it the British tabloid treatment. With his tendency to drop R's from words like "water" and "year," his is not one of the more formal British accents.
What you've got is a documentary about the potential for a rise in sea level due to melting glaciers that could submerge the coastal areas of North America and elsewhere, which is pretty dramatic stuff. But instead of letting the facts and some good writing convey the drama, the director has chosen a style that is like putting five or 10 exclamation marks after every few sentences, with his intrusive lightning and thunder effects, which are far from subliminal.
Any professional writer or editor knows that resorting to overuse of exclamation marks is a sign of a really bad writer! A skilled writer creates the sense of exclamation through the proper choice of words and manipulation of the author's voice!! The over-dramatization!!!! and constant!!! video exclamation marks!!!!! employed by Nick Powell!!!!!! don't enhance!! the inherent drama!!! of the subject matter!!!!!!!, they distract!!!!! from it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
I saw this documentary packaged by National Geographic as "Earth Investigated: Earth Under Water." The title, alone, suggests that someone went into overdrive in the exaggeration department. Ummm, I don't think we are in for another Noah's flood. ("Naked Science" isn't much of an improvement, unless we are treated to some naked babes on glaciers.) This is not the sort of tabloid nonsense I expect from National Geographic. (edit: I see from the recent news coverage that Rupert "News of the World" Murdoch owns the National Geographic channel, so I guess people better get used to it.)
Perhaps some people actually like this sort of over-caffeinated approach to science documentaries. If you are on LSD, it will blow your mind!!!!! But I am a grown up, not an ADHD challenged teenager, and I found "Glacier Meltdown" extremely annoying and close to unwatchable. The tendency to exaggeration raised doubts in my mind about the credibility of the entire documentary. The last thing we need in the debate over global warming is to hand the skeptics ammunition.
Deep Ocean: The Final Frontier, aka Dangers of the Deep, is another one of those MTV-type documentaries from National Geographic.
What you've got here is a hybrid mix of MTV, Alfred Hitchcock, the sound track from Jaws, and British tabloid sensationalism. Earth Under Water deserves to be deep-sixed!!!!!!!!!!
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- dimplet
- May 6, 2011
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