Music: Lorne Balfe
Here’s the thing – giraffes eat leaves at the top of trees with long necks, or do they eat the leaves from the top of the trees because they have long necks?*
The promise of a narration comprising the liquorice tones of Morgan Freeman soon becomes morphed into the rolling burrs of Ewan McGregor – that’s evolution for you. (Freeman narrates the Netflix streamed episodes). The production credits alone are more than a mouthful to match a ravenous T Rex breakfast–esque film, in association with Netflix and Silverback Films, in association with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television.
Already streaming on Netflix, the eight-part series Life on Our Planet is the inevitable CGI evolutionary homa
ge to predecessors, Life on Earth, Blue Planet and subsequent series but sadly eschewing any gorilla hugging.
Describing itself as a ‘natural history immersive concert experience’ tonight’s presentation certainly ticks all those boxes. The epic journey begins with The Big Bang, the toxic broth that was Earth’s formation, the eventual oceans’ domination and life’s kick-starter – single-cell life forms – it was all going so nicely until we learn that 99% of all species ever in existence are now extinct. A potent precursor to the grim epilogue as to Mankind’s potential self-inflicting environmental armageddon albeit with a life-affirming, upbeat caveat of hope over adversity. The End of the World is Nigh/Save the Planet is a misnomer. The planet is quite capable of reinventing itself thank you very much, notwithstanding the occasional comet dropping by, it is the environment that needs saving.
Giving it a few umpteen million years, the single-celled decided to explore the possibilities of vertebrae and backbones resulting in an insane explosion of fish, notwithstanding some diversionary experiments into gargantuan ugliness. Bored of the limitations of swimming around in circles dodging shark-like things the size of a zeppelin, some of the more curious lobe-finned fish decided to go ex-aqua and breathe on land. ‘From fin to limb’ is the succinct segue. Meanwhile, Earth decided to give plants a go starting with very modest lichen that evolved into some three-hundred and forty-five million plant forms. The Cambrian Period some 538.8 million years ago saw an unprecedented explosion of myriad life forms.
Protective parents were prompted to tell their children to look away now during the engaging, if not over-long, CGI sequences whereby both giant millipedes and T Rexes attempt to make babies. The former a matter of getting as many legs over as decently possible, the latter best even not decently contemplated. The prospect of a coy blushing female T Rex is worth the sequence alone.
Given the evening’s presentation is a snapshot of highlights, it can be hoped that there will be at least a divertissement into the evolution of the eye. The Darwinists might for once agree with the Creationists that when it came to the eye, God stepped in and said, ‘No, I want to do that bit!’
The CBSO gives the ridiculously prolific Lorne Balfe’s score a run for its money with its sensory, tactile atmospherics and delicious episodes of timpani-trembling jeopardies. There follows an amphibian super slo-mo spectacular aerial ballet that leads us into the stupidly easy-to-answer conundrum – what came first, the chicken or the egg? The egg, by approximately one billion years. That’s that one cracked. The egg changed everything until mammals decided to keep things in-house.
The Great Extinction special effects sequence is truly astonishing marking the end of the Permian period some 252 million years ago. Precipitated by a gargantuan volcanic eruption in what would become modern Siberia – things having considerably cooled down since then – it caused the near extinction of almost every living organism. Things speed up to celebrate the rise of the mammals notwithstanding a bizarre interlude where a pack of decidedly looking mean carnivore leopard ancestors stalk a coven of super-armoured armadillos and decide that given they can’t penetrate to the tasty flesh instead play, ‘I’m the king of the armadillo castle.’ Seemed a good idea at the time.
With the rise to global domination of ‘The most dangerous animal in the world – homo sapiens’ there follows an intriguing sequence of primitive tribespeople stalking buffalo/bison using sophisticated herding/corralling techniques driving them to stampede over a cliff edge. It was only a matter of time until nuclear weapons did the job much quicker.
The epilogue relates the environmental perilous state of Our Planet Earth and the impending collapse of civilisation as it exists on a knife-edge. Cue apocalyptic belching chimneys, filth-strewn lakes and rivers, drought-parched wastelands capped by a JG Ballard-esque image of a drowned London. But there’s an uplifting finale optimism celebrating Mankind’s capacity for adaptation and reinvention given the will. Echoing Jeff Goldblum’s rock-star chaos-theory mathematician, Dr Ian Michael, ‘Life finds a way.’ Although, in his case, it meant dealing with a pack of raptors. Creationists will have a revelation sensation. Darwinists, an evolution revolution solution. God only knows. Highly recommended family viewing.
*It’s because they have long necks.
Reviewed on 4 October 2024
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An Evolution revolution solution
