Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure [Blu-ray]

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Starring: Liev Schreiber
Rated: G (General Audience)
Type: DVD
Directed By: Sean Phillips;Sean MacLeod Phillips
Studio: NAT'L GEOGRAPHIC VID
Release Date: 2008-06-24
For nearly 200 million years while dinosaurs roamed the Earth, the seas teemed with some of the most awe-inspiring ocean creatures of all time. Sea Monsters, a National Geographic Giant Screen film, is an entertaining journey into prehistoric oceans. Inter-cutting between the animated story and the reenactments of fossil discoveries combine the appeal of "Indiana Jones" with the CGI that brings these prehistoric monsters to life. Perfect for the whole family.

Unplayable
I thought this would complement nicely my large collection on the prehistoric. And it still might, if ever I get to watch it. Twice from Amazon, and once from another vendor, I purchased this dvd -- and it wouldn't play on my player. Nothing wrong with my Sony -- everything else plays fine -- and they were all marked Region 1. So there's a problem at the manufacturing end. I'm dumbfounded that others haven't reported this. I'm the only one? And bought it three different times?

Shorter than I thought
Since BBC's "Walking With Dinosaurs" came out, there have been a host of books and TV shows about prehistoric life that have used the latest special effects and CGI. One notable release was this one by National Geographic, which came out as a book, a movie, and an IMAX movie. I have the book, and now I've watched the movie. Viewed by itself, the movie is incredible, very realistic special effects; all the creatures look real. Unfortunately, this movie clocks in at under 40 minutes, and does not feature all the animals shown in the book. But as an educational experience, it is still good.

Just when you thought it was safe to go in the water.....
Outstanding production by the National Geographic folks. The companion book is also great. My Dinosaurphile son loves both.

Better for Education than Entertainment
The special effects were amazing, a lot of information was given, wonderful narration, and the storyline was interesting.

However, I can't bring myself to give more than three stars because the staged paleontologist scenes were too cheesy for me...I don't know if better actors would have made a difference. Just when we were getting into the scenes with the prehistoric creatures, it would cut away to a reacreation of how the fossils were found - it was very distracting.

I think maybe they should have separated those scenes from the main storyline, and offered the fossil information as a special feature for the DVD.

If you prefer the set-up of DVDs such as Chased By Sea Monsters or When Dinosaurs Roamed America, you might have the same problem trying to sit through this DVD.

We bought this DVd for our three-year old son who is fascinated with prehistoric sea monsters...he loves the parts featuring the creatures, but kept wandering off whenever they cut to the staged "people" scenes. That kind of defeated the purpose of buying this DVD.

preshistoric sea monsters
Very good CG graphics, which is what I bought this for; story line is a little shallow but OK.