Movie Review by Vivienne Messenger
Starring: Chuck Hargrove, (narrator), Liesl Eichenberger (guide)
Director: Ben Stassen
WILD SAFARI IN 3D: A SOUTH AFRICAN ADVENTURE takes its audience on a documentary tracking down five elusive, wild animals in their natural habitat in various Southern African locations.
With 3D glasses firmly in place you are made to feel you are a fellow passenger in the jeep that drives very slowly from one location to another in pursuit of The Big Five: the African elephant, southern African leopard, the lion, the white rhino and the African buffalo.
The documentary itself is very paced and quite slow going, it’s the 3D angle that redeems the film and enhances it. At only 45 minutes running time it is quite short for a feature film but there’s just not enough factual material to keep the audience interested. If this were a wildlife documentary on the Discovery Channel you would probably turn off within a few minutes but the IMAX 3D does save the day. In some shots the 3D is really very good, in others you’re really stretching to focus and the vision can be quite uncomfortable.
All in all it’s a very basic film that will pass the time if you’ve got nothing better to do and haven’t experienced an IMAX 3D film before. It might also be worth remembering to take some antibacterial wipes to use on the 3D glasses because they are all very well used!
