Amanda Parker

Very thought provoking Don’t judge it by its first episode, it’s format of exploring what alien life would be like on one planet per episode means it is interesting as a whole, moving from less to more sophisticated aspects of life. The show explores what kinds of life could live on planets that differ in one primary way from earth. Gravity, day/night cycle (or lack of) and atmosphere are covered in the first three episodes, up to harnessing energy from the sun to enable interstellar migration. As mentioned by others, the cuts between the CGI and real footage can be jarring at times, but it gets better (or you get used to it) over time. The non-CGI parts of the documentary are great, and leave you with a better understanding of what makes life possible on earth as well as spark the imagination on what kinds of alien life could exist on exoplanets. See the CGI segways as someone else’s imagination of alien life and planets and try to come up with some of your own within the parameters covered in this documentary- a fun thought experiment! That said, the CGI is beautiful. It’s a time consuming hence expensive enterprise and it was sold in trailers as the feature of the documentary. This may be a mistake in raising people’s expectations, but what they’ve achieved in realising imaginary alien life forms is impressive.

I like the concept that the character Isabel presents halfway through this movie. That in order to feel happiness or bliss you have to experience deprivation and pain. In a world where everybody has no needs, they become unhappy because they have nothing to compare it to. What if one day you were granted everything you’ve ever wanted? How long would you stay happy with that? What would you do next? Overall however the movie doesn’t really make that point well or really make it at all, it is a hodgepodge of feelings, images, and half-thought ideas, much like a dream. I still liked it though. Like a dream, interpretation seems up to you. But eh, I’m not very sober right now so take my take with a grain of salt.

I really enjoyed this movie. I was about two bottles of wine in and now finishing a third, but I do sincerely think non drunk people might like it too.