SnoopyStyle
The original TV show consists of 11 hour long episodes of some of the most stunning nature cinematography and harrowing real life-and-death struggles. One should definitely get the British version with David Attenborough narrating to get that old nature documentary feel. The scope is global and the visuals are cinematic. It is a thing of utter beauty. There are 3 additional episodes called Planet Earth: The Future and it's best to avoid those. It's a lot of talking heads saying the same thing from slightly different angles. I understand the motive to push for nature conservation but pushing too hard comes off as being preachy. There is greater power to show the beauty of nature. One can always insert the ugliness of human destruction without having talking heads drone on about it. The original 11 episodes are as close to perfection as TV nature documentaries can get.
clibat2
This is a great series. First, the bad part... the narration can get a bit annoying. An American version would be great so measurements were in Fahrenheit, inches and miles rather than metric. Other annoyances such as the constant and incorrect use of the word "literally" which after a while is comical could also be corrected. Finally, a narrator that doesn't sound like he is talking with food in his mouth would be a big improvement. That's the bad part, but the good outweighs the bad which is why I rated this a 6. Great care and expense was obviously taken with the filming which includes everything from closeups to aerial imagery. This is the type of video that makes your HDTV really pay off.
Lin2050
Yes, there are beautiful wide-angle views of our PLANET EARTH. But they form ONLY about 15% of this documentary. The majority, about 80% of this movie, is about animals eating one another.Photographing animals is relatively easy and cheap, while photographing truly beautiful, wide-angle views of our Earth is very expensive and time-consuming. And obvious they knew it, which is why this movie is given the misleading title of "PLANET EARTH", instead of the correct title "ANIMALS ON PLANET EARTH". I don't want to call this cheating
.As I said, yes, there are some great photos showing the beauty of the Earth. But even these are beginning to show signs of age. The blu-ray version of this movie is in VC-1, an old, not that HD format, now abandoned by everyone.One thing I dislike most is seeing a narrator jumping into your view and start talking nonsense, while I was in the middle of enjoying the beauty of a scene. This guy seemed to do this in many of the BBC nature documentaries. Luckily, he refrained from do it in this movie. Maybe they have spent too much money on this documentary and don't want it ruined
BTW, if you are interested in the beauty of the Earth, rather than in animals eating one another, Frozen Planet might be a better choice, although it unfortunately covers only the poles.
Dylan-Potter
While not quite the superb feel of Life of Mammals, this is a very well-made documentary. Travels around the Earth and films something like never before. From Pole to Pole is an awesome beginning, and displays the best scenes upcoming, without showing too many great moments. Mountains is high adventure, where scenes are more thrilling because if predators don't get you, then the fall will. The fresh water episode shows an amazing life in the rivers, such as piranhas and river dolphins. The caves episode is a thrilling travel down into the caves of earth, the amazing underground world. Deserts shows how life survives in the remote worlds, in this hard land called the desert in a fascinating exploration. Ice Worlds shows the coldest environments, in the show's peak. Great Plains is my 2nd favourite, with so much action, thrills, an exciting episode. Jungles is a truly exciting look at the rain forests, with monkeys, snakes and many more. Shallow Seas shows the waters of true fascination. My 3rd favourite is soon after this, but first my 4th favourite Seasonal Forests is an examination of forests and some exciting creatures. Then is the truly weird Ocean Deep, starring an array of strange and different species. I can't get over how strange the species of this really are. Vampire Squid, and many things with weird names and weird bodies/lives that I am amazed by, in an epic conclusion. An epic series, my 2nd favourite Attenborough after life of mammals. WATCH IT!
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