I’m not complaining, and in fact if you haven’t been to an IMAX feature at your local Omni Theater -- go now! They’re fun.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJdJ1uHmbzw

However, I’m supposed to be writing about Antarctica so here it is.

Most IMAX films are rightfully targeted to children. They’re the most likely ones to be visiting the science museums, dragging their parents to see penguins & the like. What I enjoyed about IMAX Antarctica: An Adventure of a Different Nature was that it was intellectual enough to keep my interest past the adorable penguins & seals.

Some highlights:

• A discussion of climate change (radical, I know).
• Footage demonstrating the perils of walking over hazardous ice “bridges” including images of an entire bulldozer swallowed up by Antarctica.
• Discussion of the earliest explorers including images of those that didn’t survive the return journey.
• Video of two divers swimming around INSIDE a glacier. Absolutely beautiful images showing the serene stillness and crystal clear water. Who would’ve thought the inside of a glacier had water and wasn’t solid ice?!

The film was done really nicely with a good balance of kid-friendly footage (seals and penguins, yo!) and unpolitical, hard-hitting journalism (cough … global warming … cough). If you can see the film, I’d suggest a viewing. It’s only 45 minutes and (at least at the Boston Museum of Science) only $4.50. Enough to make me feel like I was traveling.

____
Useful Links:
>> Web site for the IMAX film
>> Boston Museum of Science

Description of the film from the IMAX site:
Antarctica follows man’s thirst for exploration to the highest, driest, windiest, coldest continent on Earth. Audiences will marvel as they take a harrowing helicopter ride through icy crevasses and towering  pinnacles; dive with the first humans to swim through a crystalline cavern submerged within a glacier; drill through centuries-old ice to unlock the secrets of Antarctica’s past; and join a company of penguins in a graceful underwater ballet.