Genesis (2004)

Best movie of this year hands down!

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

This effort by the team that brought us "Microcosmos" can't hold a candle to that film.While the visuals are attractive, they lack the originality and surprise that made "Microcosmos" the wonder that it is. In fact, there isn't a single substantial bit of footage in this film that isn't much like images one might see in nature documentaries from many other sources. These are woven together by a narrative that clearly wasn't written by the griot who tells the "story," but are instead words put into his mouth in a script written by others. The net effect of this leaves one all too often that one is watching stock footage that's been cobbled together.In the effort to describe everything and anything, this film sacrifices any depth whatsoever. We get, instead, an overly broad and utterly superficial ramble that comes off lacking any sincerity at all. The makers of "Genesis" would have done much better to have focused on one or two aspects of their overly-ambitious "story" rather than sacrificing the wonder and detail that gave "Microcosmos" its unique charm.The problem isn't that "Genesis" isn't like a Discovery Channel documentary. To the contrary, the problem is precisely that it IS so much like one, but it doesn't have as much depth. Aside from a few pretty pictures, "Genesis" is a disappointment.

Clearly not everyone will like this film. It is very different from Microcosmos and Winged Migration in that it doesn't have enough imagery to woo the viewer, but adds some sort of narrative unlike the first two films.Unfortunately, the narrative is extremely simplistic and not creative or beautiful enough to hide the fact. It consists of a Negro elder somewhere in Africa, who in rather accessible, but very simplistic language explains that Earth emerged, cooled down, life evolved, organisms have sex and this is how he came to this world. This might be interesting to children or people not familiar with science and nature documentaries, but for a refined viewer such narrative doesn't offer anything compelling.Unfortunately, there isn't much in the film for them. The visuals, while pretty, are not original at all (some molten lava, some birds, some insects, etc.). We have indeed seen most of it in countless other documentaries, which was not the case with visually revolutionary Microcosmos and Winged Migration. There are some funny scenes that usually involve anthropomorphic behaviour from animals - perhaps revealing the intention to target this film towards kids. :) If you go to see this movie, please don't expect to see anything deep, don't expect to see but most cursory description of genesis and don't expect visual breakthroughs. It's just a nice small movie with pretty pictures and some funny moments.

This is a beautifully conceived, artistic myth about origin and cycle of life as told by an African storyteller in beautifully enunciated French (English subtitles). His myth is illustrated with nature photography that is both appropriate for the particular thought and, simultaneously, of great beauty. Over six years of patient work assembled this material by the co-directors who are also professional biologists. As a consequence, their myth rests solidly in modern science. Their venues range from Iceland (the opening shots) to Madagascar (for the brilliantly colored shots of marine life). This wonderfully conceived film is underpinned by an original score which complements the photography and is wonderfully innovative. I hope a video becomes available.

This movie is a quiet and meditative work of art. At first I thought it would be something like a school movie about evolution, but it turned out as a work of plainly contemplative (at some points almost voyeuristique) piece of art. The movie will disappoint people who expect a plot line. It comes rather along like a slideshow, intriguingly framed by Bruno Coulais' experimental soundtrack (which, however, gets out of hand at the end). Beautiful colourful macro pictures. The movie's best actor, the mudskipper, almost gives you the impression that you are being watched by the movie. A joyful avantgarde experience. For those who enjoy little offstream movies.