zardoz-13 "One Life" is for the most part a brilliant documentary about life in the animal kingdom. My chief complaint is the scene about the shoal of fish where they hide in a crowd to conceal themselves. The birds dive bomb them from the air while the dolphins and swordfish attack them from the depths. I saw this same ritual enacted in another BBC documentary. The rest of the action, like the dragons stalking the water buffalo, the fox pursuing the ibex, and the mouse eluding the lizard, is outstanding because the filmmakers explain the strategy of survival in the animal kingdom. The birds that mate and dance were cool. Basically, if these sequences have been done before, then my complaint would have applied. However, I haven't seen enough animal documentaries to skewer the filmmakers on repetition. I sat through this 85 minute feature and was dazzled by the complex as well as complicated cinematography and the extent to which the filmmakers went to make everything seem so cinematic. The scene about the ants cutting down blades of grass so they could take them back to their ant bed to feed the grass to a fungus that the ants thrived on was fantastic. Similarly, the ants created ventilation shafts to clear out all the carbon monoxide that got trapped in their kingdom that would kill them from the interaction between the grass and the fungus. The sequence about the monkeys using rocks to smash their food so they could eat it was terrific, too. Daniel Craig did a fabulous job with his beautiful English accent in the narration.

Lennart Kloppenburg Over the last couple of years, a lot of documentaries on wild life and nature have been made by BBC. And we all know that no one does it better than them. When I heard that this new documentary, called 'One Life', would be in the movie theaters, I was immediately convinced. I just had to see it, and I'm quite sure millions of other people felt the same way. I am a huge fan of the amazingly popular and beautiful series 'Earth', so my expectations were quite high.But I was slightly disappointed. What I saw was another collection of the most beautiful images of nature, another one and half an hour long stream of events. Predator vs. prey, mother and cubs, and what not. It was delightful to watch all the same, but it was far from original, it brought nothing new. That, however, is quite difficult, because there are so many documentaries. But why bother making another one? I haven't seen anything I haven't seen before on BBC's previous movie-making masterpieces. Of course, if you haven't any experience when it comes to documentaries on nature, this is a very, very good one. It also focuses on trying to show how animals and humans are alike, how we are inevitably connected to the same things animals are, and what we both try to achieve.I can recommend this to anyone who is not that familiar with documentaries. It is very good for children to watch, because it is very easy to understand. And on top of that; there are of course the amazingly beautiful scenes of nature. But if you have seen a lot more of these (say 'Earth'), then 'One Life' will probably not be worth the effort. [7/10]

Perry Bee I have seen just about every critter on earth on TV, but there were a few in this show that I was not aware of. I did not care for the narrators voice, I think he is better suited driving a sports car and shooting bad guys.Anyway if you want to watch some incredible footage of some of the most beautiful critters on earth than watch this, you can't go wrong, and a damn good excuse to go and buy a HD TV (only way to watch this).Not to start a debate on creation, but any one watching this and still thinks all this came from a big bang is a fruit-loop! A 10 out of 10 for me

aaronb955 This documentary is just a collection of selected scenes/stories from the more comprehensive BBC series Life but is fantastic nevertheless even if you have already seen it on TV. For me the one standout was the narration by Daniel Craig and the very subtle music. Here in the US the TV show was narrated by Oprah Winfrey which was a disaster. You might not think of James Bond as a narrator for a nature documentary but Craig really did a great job on this one. He really conveys the astonishment and wonder that you feel watching these animals in his tone of voice but in a very playful way. And the music is very subtle and not too dramatic. In fact the total silence with no music and no narration in the scene with the Ibex climbing down the cliff is more powerful than if there was any. My favorite scene however is the one with the cheetahs on the prowl filmed head on, with the cats walking almost straight ahead towards the camera, it just conveyed a sense of power of the predators on their land. Highly recommended regardless of whether you watched the TV show or not.