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Takes itself way too seriously

Don't Believe the Hype

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

This review had been deleted due to a report of "abuse" by another reader. Typically, there is no argument, just a report to authorities of "abuse", where there is none. Sadly, nowadays, having an opinion that looks at things from a different perspective is reported by the ignorant as abuse. More sadly, those that review the complaint agree with the complainant, again, where there is no "abuse".Visual depiction, things change. There has been more CO2 in the air in the past, the earth survived. There are natural mechanisms that deal with CO2. What natural mechanism deals with the dumping of tons and tons of barium, aluminum, thorium, cadmium, chromium, and nickel in our skies? If you're interested in thinking outside the CO2 box, check out multiple internet sites related to 'chemtrails' or 'geoengineering' that I'm not allowed to cite here.Example: "For more than a decade, first the United States and then Canada's citizens have been subjected to a 24/7/365 day aerosol assault over our heads made of a toxic brew of poisonous heavy metals, chemicals, and other dangerous ingredients. None of this was reported by any mainstream media."Rather, planes (fitted with special nozzles) release aerosols "lines" in the sky that do not evaporate. At first, these lines are thin; but soon they expand and, in a short time, merge together. Our once-blue sky has vanished and has been replaced by a grayish-white toxic haze that blots out and greatly diminishes our usual sunshine.

This movie deserves appreciation because of the humility with which reveals the general nature of the human being. It shows how one person can cover a whole phenomenon driven by the desire to deliver truth to the rest of humanity.The film shows the constant struggle between man and nature, but we are also reminded of their unity and interdependence. There are moments in which nature must be overcome and such in which nature should be helped and supported. Human and natural world are not two different things. They are unified whole.Before our eyes is developing one of the most important philosophical themes - that of the circle of reason and nature. The film is particularly relevant along global conference in Paris devoted to climate change. Without being intrusive, it attracts. With no lavish effects, it has the most beautiful scenes. Without conceived deep intrigue, it sent one of the deepest questions of life in our real daily existence. That is the question about the fate of the future of mankind.It is tribute to photography, to human bravery, to human visionary and to the good part of the human nature.http://vihrenmitevmovies.blogspot.com/

This is one of those documentaries that sets out with good intentions but ultimately fails to make a convincing impression. It would be vastly improved if it were about 30 minutes long, if all the irrelevant stuff about Balog were excised and if it focused on a single and simple message. As it stands it's unclear if the picture is primarily intended to show its auteur as a hero, to illuminate the alarming speed with which global warming is causing glaciers to recede, or to demonstrate what a rugged, challenging and difficult business it is to try to get direct photographic evidence of the glacier recessions (for all but rugged disbelievers in the impact of global warming, competent annual maps would do just as well).What we're given is a curious admixture of all three elements. Balog starts by telling us how beautiful he finds ice as a photographic subject, yet we're shown only a small handful of his ice pictures. One quickly gets the impression that the cinematographer brings home such superb images Balog's still pictures don't compete particularly well. The business of Balog's knee I found just plain tiresome. A handful of the shots showing what a difficult operation it was to set up the time-lapse cameras would be sufficient to make the point that the task is not one for wimps.The time-lapse photos of the glaciers receding are impressive; so too the shots of huge chunks of sheet ice 'calving' icebergs the size of Manhattan. But the long wait to see the time-lapse photos is not justified by the intervening material. I liked the comment that the glaciers are the planetary equivalent of the canary in the mine, giving early warning of a change that needs to be taken seriously. If this had been the clear emphasis of the movie, without all the subsidiary and — candidly — dull stuff about Balog's knee, the picture would have made a far stronger impact.At one point someone makes the comment that filming and camera placing leaves you realizing you've spend months of your life just looking at ice. It's the responsibility of the director and editor NOT to convey that feeling to the audience!

As a photographer, James Balog is to me as I am to a cockroach, although I have done a little bit of glacier photography. So it is not surprising that he has worked for National Geographic and has made the movie, "Chasing Ice". I recently traveled some distance to Chicago to see this movie, which contains the most stunning glacier images imaginable.Early in the movie he wades barefoot into freezing surf full of iceberg chunks to obtain pictures of water breaking over the ice. Right there I was hooked into this movie on the basis of the photography even before we get to shrinking glaciers and what they say about global warming.The centerpiece is the Extreme Ice Survey (EIS), the project he established to provide dramatic documentation of the shrinking glaciers. He and his coworkers placed cameras with automatic timers overlooking glaciers in the far north to take several years of time-lapse pictures of these moving rivers of ice.He also clambers over difficult, icy surfaces to photograph the melting itself. Rivers of melt-water flow down the glaciers and into gigantic holes, where the ice has been eaten away, providing a path to the bottom. To photograph this, he needs to climb down difficult, dangerous, icy cliffs that would be nearly inaccessible even to someone with two healthy knees, which he does not have.There are several dramatic scenes showing his tribulations with his nasty knee and balky equipment. They remind us that such struggles are part of the adventure of understanding nature. There is a darkly amusing scene showing his fight just to walk (to get the facts) juxtaposed with the talking heads of the usual gang of global warming deniers (accusing scientists of fakery).The payoff is the parade of the glaciers, the moving (in more ways than one) images of rivers of ice charging forward while the glacier fronts crumble even faster, eating the glacier from front to back. Other images show glaciers shrinking top to bottom so rapidly that it looks as if they are deflating. My only criticism is that these images went by too fast, hence only a 9 rating instead of 10.Shrinking glaciers are natural thermometers, which help document the reality of global warming. I hope that the widest possible audience will be able to see this. It is not, nor was it intended to be, a systematic scientific survey. There have been many such surveys showing, for example, that we are not just cherry-picking the glaciers that are losing mass. Balog's intent was to provide the most riveting possible observation, and he has succeeded. Looking at a thermometer will never be the same.