THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 13, 1996 TAG: 9606130039
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: Mal Vincent
LENGTH: 74 lines
``Into the Deep'' is a poetic mood poem that takes us into a world that is as strange and as intriguing as any imaginable. In both subject matter and technical wizardry, it is the perfect choice to open the new Family Channel IMAX 3-D Theater, part of the $35 million expansion at the Virginia Marine Science Museum in Virginia Beach.
You'll have to pinch yourself to believe that you're not actually underwater.
Seemingly plotless, the 35-minute film actually has a half dozen ``plots'' going on at once. There is a cast of thousands here and a death scene to rival any Greek tragedy. In this case, the hordes are Spanish mackerel and the death scene involves opalescent squid.
``Into the Deep'' is the world's first IMAX 3-D underwater film and, as such, it tempts us to become preoccupied with its pure bigness. After all, the screen which houses it is 63-feet-high and 84-feet-wide. The theater is six stories high.
In fact, there seems to be no frame for the film. You are a part of it. Your vision, your very being, is suspended within the experience itself for the duration.
The surprising thing, though, is that this latest 3-D outing never stoops to sensationalism. Nobody throws anything at you. A shark does come exploring, but he peers at us and proceeds on his way - a creature of the real world, not of ``Jaws'' persuasion.
Filmed off the coast of California, it has no villains or heroes. Scenes are not ``staged.'' Its setting, a kelp forest, sparks the intermingling of a fascinating ``cast,'' ranging from a moray eel lying in wait for an octopus to two male sarcastic fringeheads taking on each other in a battle of bluster (And, yes, they are actually known as ``sarcastic fringeheads'').
The octopus fights back as it sprays the eel with a mass of ink. A baby swell shark struggles out of his case and swims away to face life alone.
It's quite a neighborhood.
The fine thing about Howard Hall's direction is that he has entered it with as little fanfare as possible and left it the same way. What we see is ``to scale'' with no telescopic lenses. Just as mood-setting is the fact that there is no time lapse. This is just what it appears to be - a slice of undersea life.
And, yes, there is sex. We are there on the one night in all the year when the opalescent squid mate. The females anchor their egg cases in the sandy ocean floor and then all the adults die en masse. Shakespeare never could match this in scope.
Kate Nelligan, an Oscar nominee for ``Prince of Tides,'' adds restrained, sparse and unobtrusive narration. Composers Mickey Erbe and Maribeth Solomon use wooden flutes and a Chinese violin to enhance the quality of enchanting allure.
The filmmakers have avoided sensationalism at every turn. Their film, in spite of its bigness, is tight and economical, making the 35 minutes seem like less. This is a restrained, beautiful, and quite unique film experience. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW
``Into the Deep''
Who: Directed by Howard Hall. Photographed by Noel Archambault, in
IMAX 3-D. Music composed by Micky Erbe and Maribeth Solomon,
narrated by Kate Nelligan
Where: Family Channel IMAX 3-D Theater at the Virginia Marine
Science Museum, 717 General Booth Blvd., Virginia Beach
When: First public screening Saturday at 11 a.m. and hourly
afterward with last show at 9 p.m. Subsequently, shows will be daily
from 10 a.m. until 9 p.m.
How Much: $6.95 for adults, $5.95 for children and adult museum
members, $4.95 for child museum members. (Admission to the theater
is separate from museum admission).
Call: 437-4949 by CNB