Life (2009) User Reviews

An excellent documentary showing us nature in its glory...

[broomerang · 10/10 · 28 October 2009]

This has to be one of the best documentaries I have ever seen. The cinematography is amazing, the narrator has everything down perfectly, and the wildlife they show throughout the series is very interesting and colorful. The film crew travels all over the globe to capture nature's greatest moments, and they pull this off with ease.

I would highly recommend this documentary to anyone. It is quite comparable to Planet Earth or Animal Planet.

Check it out and let us know via comments what you guys think of it.

I can't wait to buy the BluRay 1080p versions of this series...

10/10!

Absolutely Amazing, But Not Perfect

[whynot2 · 9/10 · 31 January 2010]

I certainly take no issue with the overwhelming positive reviews that preceded mine: the series provided amazingly photographed and dramatically presented insight into the diversity of life on the planet. We watched the entire series, and wish we had kept track of the number of times that we said "Oh. My. God." or "That is so bizarre..." Very much like "Planet Earth", "Life" demands a renewed sense of wonder of all that surrounds us.

Having said that, and to take nothing away from the indisputable positive attributes, I thought that the series fell something just short of 'absolutley perfect'.

At the highest level, information, and video images (albeit amazing ones) are presented quickly and are short. I'd liken the effect to flipping through a NGM, as opposed to reading the articles. The effect is strong, but I was left thirsting for a little more hard information. I realize that one could probably do a 10 part series on any one of the many lifeforms that are touched on in any single episode. But I still felt somehow shorted...like I was being shown shots to maximize the 'wow!' factor and emotional response, rather than present information.

which leads to the more specific criticism: over and over again, my wife wondered...where the heck is that, and what is the scale of that thing??? With respect to the former, general place names are given, but many aren't that familiar to me...some sort of mapping segue would have been nice. I fully acknowledge that such would need a really artistic touch in order to avoid a 'cheapening' effect, but would satisfy our curiosity. Perhaps even part of the 'special features' on a DVD set? With respect to the latter, many times, we were shown amazing pictures of bizarre creatures, but often with no sense of scale. Size or mass range was sometimes mentioned, often times it wasn't. Often times, especially with the amazing photography, one couldn't really tell of the subject was 1 inch, 1 foot or 1 yard in size.

Notwithstanding these comments, I'm looking forward to buying the set when they come out, and look are hoping that they contain the sorts of 'making of' features that were included on the "Planet Earth" set.

Life

[jboothmillard · 9/10 · 16 November 2010]

After the tremendous success of the extraordinary and revolutionary nature documentary series Planet Earth, a similar programme was bound to follow, and indeed it did. Narrated by Sir David Attenborough, this series uses the same special camera normally in the film industry to slow down the quickest action and get close to it. The programme sees how the animals and creatures of all parts of the world manage to survive, looking at what they eat, giving birth, fighting, looking after each other and much more. Throughout the programme we see reptiles and amphibians, mammals, fish, birds, insects, hunters and hunted, creatures of the deep, plants and primates. It was interesting to see the familiar animals and creatures you have seen many times in other programmes, but also the ones you have probably never seen. Filled with colourful worlds, magnificent living things and hearing the wonderful narration by Attenborough makes this just as brilliant as its predecessor, a must see. It won the Emmy for Outstanding Cinematography for Nonfiction Programming "cinematography team", and it was nominated for Outstanding Picture Editing for Nonfiction Programming, Outstanding Sound Editing for Nonfiction Programming (Single or Multi-Camera), Outstanding Sound Mixing for Nonfiction Programming and Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming. Very good!

Incredible footage that will amaze you more than Planet Earth.

[MrRowBot · 29 November 2009]

Words cannot describe how amazing this documentary is. Watching the series, you will continuously wonder how the camera crew was able to film the events and in such high definition.

When I first watched the 'Planet Earth' series, I thought the production qualities on a documentary of this genre could not be surpassed until I watched 'Life'. Narrated by David Attenborough, 'Life' feels like an improved version of 'Planet Earth' with a focus specifically on how life works. The series shows how complex, beautiful, and harsh life is with absolute clarity.

Most of us live in cities away from wildlife making us forget about the world beyond humans. 'Life' takes us on a journey into nature we never get to see in our normal lives, and for the most part, never knew existed.

Attenborough for Children

[roedyg · 9/10 · 22 February 2014]

I was expecting this film to have a creationist slant, but it does not. It is a bit like David Attenborough for children. It has first class nature photography, but it is aimed at children with a dumbed-down narration by Oprah Winfrey and somewhat Disneyfied music. It sometimes has an odd prudishness about fish reproduction.

The creatures chosen are each bizarre and entertaining but ones I have seen before.

Some of the principles of evolution are presented, but in a subtle way. The focus is on strange animal behaviour, not how it could have evolved. I learned something new, that the schooling behaviour of anchovies is indeed very effective against predators.

It is not totally prettified. It shows flamingo chicks that died after they fell out of the nest.

I think the insect segment was most interesting with the most material I had not seen before. The jousting tournament with the surprise ending really tickled me.

There are bits of Disneyesque anthropomorphising, for example talking of insects "fighting for their dignity".

This is first rate family entertainment. I am ready to see it again already.

A fascinating look at the wide range of lifeforms on Earth

[mymtproject · 10/10 · 21 November 2016]

I love the BBC's nature documentaries. They are some of the best in terms of photography and detail. LIFE is a favorites among them and David Attenborough again does a stellar job of narrating, providing hitherto unknown facts about life in all it's various niches. The chapters on Plants and Insects were best ones. I never knew how extensive and diverse these life forms are and all the environments they occupy. Simply amazing! This is a good educational series for children as well as adults. There is so much to learn about how nature works. The more we know, the more appreciative we become of our unique blue dot in space.

Wondrous Life

[TheLittleSongbird · 10/10 · 14 October 2017]

Despite how much he apparently dislikes the term "national treasure", that term really does sum up David Attenborough to a tee. He is such a great presenter (in his 90s and still sounds, and looks on a side note, great) and whenever a new series of his is aired they are often among the best the BBC has done in years.

Am a great fan of a lot of Attenborough's work and BBC's nature documentaries with his involvement are among their best work in years. Have been watching the BBC less over time, but there are always exceptions, unexpected gems and expected treasures that come our way every now and again and their nature documentaries are the perfect examples of expected treasures. 'Life' is a crowning achievement for a documentary series and actually, like the best documentary shows, feels much more than that. As far as Attenborough's work goes too, 'Life' to me is one of his biggest achievements.

'Life' is an exceptionally well-made series first and foremost, in fact saying that doesn't do the production values justice. It is gorgeously filmed, done in a completely fluid and natural, sometimes intimate (a great way of connecting even more with the animals), way and never looking static. In fact much of it is remarkably cinematic. The editing is always succinct and smooth and the scenery and various habitats are remarkably diverse and look speechlessly spectacular.

On a documentary level, 'Life' continually fascinates and illuminates, while there are some familiar facts here a lot of it was very much new (like a lot of the principles of evolution) and by the end of the series for me more was gotten out of it, and educated me much more than, anything taught when studying Geography in secondary school. Attenborough's narration helps quite significantly too, he clearly knows his stuff and knows what to say and how to say it. He delivers it with his usual richness, soft-spoken enthusiasm and sincerity, never talking down to the viewer and keeping them riveted and wanting to know more.

The wildlife and life-forms are both adorable and dangerous, the wide-ranging diversity of what was included was staggering and it was lovely to see a mix of the familiar and the not-so-familiar. How they adapt to their environments, why they behave the way they do, how nature works and how what the wildlife and life-forms do affects their environments were all touched upon and made their points subtly, not hammering it home too much (a potential danger with documentaries).

Many powerful and poignant moments, as well as suspenseful ones, while not trying too hard to evoke a viewer reaction. One really cares for what they're told and the wildlife. Each episode doesn't feel like an episodic stringing of scenes, but instead like the best nature documentaries each feels like their own story and journey, with real, complex emotions and conflicts and animal characters developed in a way a human character would in a film but does it better than several.

Overall, a crowning achievement, for Attenborough and nature documentaries in general. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Let The Earth Fascinate You!

[Sylviastel · 10/10 · 9 June 2019]

I found this DVD with Oprah Winfrey as the American narrator while Sir David Attenborough narrated the British version. Still the ten hours just flew by in watching all of the ten episodes. Each episode has a subject about nature like plants; the hunted and the hunter; underwater; mammals; fish and more. If you want a natural documentary about life and nature, this one was done beautifully. I still feel bad about the cow though being eaten alive by the Kimodo dragons. That was hard to watch.

A captivating depiction of life's varied adaptations

[tinytots2 · 9/10 · 13 December 2021]

Another gorgeous and illuminating nature documentary to add to the list, Life focusses on the anatomical, behavioural and tactical adaptations that lifeforms have devised to survive and thrive. Instead of a geographical basis, the series is divided up into ten episodes that each focusses on a separate class such as fish, birds, mammals and so on. This choice of episodic organization throws light on the commonalities between members of these classes while also highlighting the diversity that exists within them. There is also an episode centred on plants, an uncommon subject of nature documentaries, and another shining a spotlight on predator-prey interactions.

Like most productions of the BBC Natural History Unit, Life is a cinematographic treat. We journey to scenic locations all over the world, with habitats ranging from frigid ice caps to arid deserts, dense jungles to verdant grasslands, dark caves to deep seas. The film crews devise innovative methods to capture natural behaviours and wildlife encounters in unprecedented detail, and this series is a fitting reward for all their patience and hard work. The end-of-episode Life on Location segments give the audience an insightful peek at the travails and collaborative effort necessary to make such elaborate filming ventures successful. The music score is also very good as are the foley effects necessary to lend realism to the filmed scenes, and the narration by David Attenborough is wonderful as always.

The series also provides one many emotional moments and gets the audience invested into the storytelling. Predator-prey conflicts, familial bonding, courtship and mating rituals, territorial disputes, food hunts ... these are all different settings portrayed in the series in which we may find ourselves rooting for one party or another. Symbiotic relationships and communal ties are also illustrated to show how cooperative strategies can also succeed.

In conclusion, Life is a must-watch timeless documentary for any Nature lover.

Good documentary

[leaferrer · 6/10 · 3 August 2018]

Great documentary. I cannot say anything negative of this, it was simply amazing

Beautiful photography, but haven't we seen some of this before?

[LW-08854 · 7/10 · 28 December 2023]

The Blu Ray comes with 1080p resolution, Aspect ratio: 1.78:1 and audio DTS-HD HR 5.1. The series was able to take advantage of the latest camera stabilization technology while filming from helicopters and planes, the results are some sublime overhead and establishing shoots. My favourite comes from the insect episode where the camera starts off looking downwards at a waterfall before smoothly panning up to reveal a lake, beyond that a forest and beyond that again a large mountain in the distance with not a sole in sight.

By 2009 HD digital cameras were in full use by the BBC's natural history unit, having previously been used on Planet Earth (2006) and Life in Cold Blood (2008), no longer 480p but now 720 and then 1080.

The plant episode is one of my favourites with it's expert use of time lapse photography, it feels like an updated Private Life of Plants. The beautiful winter photography in this episode is also a stand out feature. The sound is also crisp and clean, whether it's a trickle of water, a rustling leaf, insect noise or an animal call. The narration from David Attenborough is also distinct, intelligible and is never muffled by the score.

On the critical side some of the most recent releases from the BBC natural history unit feature slightly less factual content, the programme seems more interested in trying to wow you with it's imagery and music than trying to educate the viewer. Earlier series tended to be drier, with more detailed narration. Life just about gets away with it's approach, the content is still very informative, there isn't so much attempt to build up drama or humour as later series would do. During the primates episode the narration did border on stating the obvious too, not trusting the audience to grasp finer points but spelling it all out for them. Attenborough tells us 3 times that the Japanese macaques monkeys in the hot spring exclude other monkeys, it slightly labours the point here. Show don't tell please.

Another stand out episode is the insects with frogs leaping in slow motion to catch insects to the sound of violin strings and soft drums. The soundtrack is orchestral having moved away from the more symphonic sound often used in the 1980s and 1990s. Some of the cinematography of the butterflies in Mexico is sublime as is the time lapse photography of changing skies. We also learn a great deal too in this episode about insect camouflage, armour and acid. 85,000 species of fly. It's worth reflecting too on how critically threatened much of this is by global warming and overpopulation. Behind the scenes looking at this episode is also well worth a look. Commercial drones for photography weren't really around back in 2009, very different to today. For one shot the camera had to glide along a wire in order to travel with the butterflies. 17 takes were done after 3 days of prep for what probably amounted to 5 seconds of footage. These people are trying so hard to get the right result for the viewer, you have to applaud the results. Unofficial sources put the budget of this programme at around £10 million, it's not just the production where the money was spend I'd bet but also the post production, All the footage looks like it's been extensively colour corrected to ensure everything looks.

Good, however a few problems.

[meatman1476 · 5/10 · 6 January 2019]

Overall good but far from great. My biggest issues were varied starting with most of this has been filmed and covered by bbc in past nature docs. My second issue was with Oprahs narrating. It was almost robotic with rarely any excitement on her part. Very unlike Attenborough who nails it every time and is very emotive. A big thing that took me right out of the doc was watching on BluRay the cuts to the commercial breaks were very very obvious. It's something I've never noticed in any of their nature docs and I've seen most repeatedly. Last complaint was a lack predation and a definite lack of showing the gore.