A unique and comprehensive portrait of an entire planet that lives and changes with humanity will make it possible to see firsthand how beautiful our common home is.

4k movies reviews
Outer spaces fascinate thousands and thousands of people, and I, to admit magnanimously, also suffer from this disease. ‘Beautiful Planet’ is, of course, not entirely about space, stars and the universe, but rather about the Earth and its magnificent views, as well as about the International Space Station, as it turned out after viewing.

In general, we have before us a familiar American documentary, flavored with excellent filming from space and the 3D effect, as much as IMAX. You knew before that the Earth is beautiful, but the film only reinforces this knowledge: there are already familiar types of oceans, vortices, continents, as well as rather unusual and breathtaking ones – what is the cost of shooting a thunderstorm front, when a lot of lightning bursts somewhere – then there on Earth, creating a magnificent picture of the release of pure energy. Beautiful pictures are almost always accompanied by pleasant comments from a voice-over (by the notorious Jennifer Lawrence in the original) in the spirit of explaining what is happening or the next, sometimes obtrusive calls for environmental protection. This is certainly a good thing, but the constant reminders that everyone can contribute to the protection of the environment over time is pretty boring. But I am glad that everything is normal here with the notorious tolerance. Nobody’s merits are exaggerated or underestimated, everyone was given roughly the same attention, and even when showing North Korea at night, the creators managed to avoid caustic unprofessional comments. No politics – beauty.

At the same time, they show the details of life on the ISS – everything is as it should be: here replenishment flew to the guys, tears and smiles, here we are shown bizarre devices for washing our hair in zero gravity or making coffee, then going into outer space, the crew’s impressions of the flight and opinion about the ecological situation, finally – farewell and return home. Here they will not reveal to you the secrets of a universal scale, they will not tell you about how often aliens look through the window, but they will show the details of everyday life at the station and even launch the camera into free flight along the narrow corridors of the ISS, which can make you dizzy: weightlessness is not a thing for everyone familiar!

Of course, the picture lacks the immersion of Gravity, it lacks the scale and grandeur of Interstellar. Having excellent material on hand, the creators were not always able to dispose of it successfully, and sometimes the impression of being intimate is created: here is the Earth, here is the ISS, and then endless expanses, which are not even allowed to look at with one eye. However, this feeling arises very, very rarely and even completely disappears when you remember that you are watching a documentary, and not a fashionable blockbuster with a million budget.

It’s a shame, however, that almost all of the shown “night” cities were located in America, while in Russia we only had a glimpse of the bright lights of Moscow surrounded by clouds. Although this lends itself to a simple explanation: in the United States, the picture earned five million dollars, but it came to us almost by chance.

Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: HDR10+
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1
French: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1

Subtitles
English SDH, French, Spanish