Earth: Making of a Planet

2011

Documentary

IMDb Rating 8.1/10 10 667 667

Plot summary

Take a photographic journey thorough time from the violent birth of our planet four and a half billion years ago, through ice-ages, massive volcanic eruptions and the dinosaurs' reign to the first humans. For the first time, see the incredible story of our planet unfold in one single, seamless camera move.

Director

Yavar Abbas Photo
Yavar Abbas

Top cast

Reg E. Cathey Photo
Reg E. Cathey as Narrator
Paul Essiembre Photo
Paul Essiembre as Narrator
720p.BLU
845.2 MB
1280*720
English 2.0
NR
59.94 fps
1 hr 31 min
Seeds ...

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by rgcustomer 7 / 10

Good, but not great

The general content of this TV movie is worth having. But it's mis-titled and poorly narrated and written.Rather than being a history of our planet, this is only a partial history, focused primarily on the planet's suitability for life on it. It dwells less on planetology and more on biological evolution as the movie progresses.I found the narration (both US narrator and script) annoying.Warden Querns -- er, Reg E Cathey -- just doesn't have the right tone for a history of the planet. His voice is neither full of admiration for the subject like Morgan Freeman, nor full of gravitas like David Attenborough. It is too stern a voice, an angry teacher.The script itself contains too many generalizations. As one example, it repeatedly implies that all the dinosaurs were wiped out, yet ignores that birds are likely their descendants. Further, no evidence is given for any of the claims in this video, so it plays more like a religious origin story than anything scientific. It diminishes the factual content, to present it in this way.The animation is (by today's standards) amateurish, video-game like. The soundtrack could be mistaken for a CNN political broadcast. This information does not need "help" from the audio and video team. Rather, it deserves respect, which it sadly did not get.Other TV movies have done this better. I would recommend Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life (2009) for the biological part, and the miniseries "Wonders of the Universe" (2011) for the rest.
Reviewed by zygsterz 9 / 10

I loved it. Fascinating and informative

I've watched this documentary about a half dozen times and I really enjoy it, as do others that I watched it with. I have seen this with two versions of narrations, American and UK. The American narrator is annoying to listen to. The UK narrator is much better. The only difference is in units of measurements. I would give it 10 stars if it wasn't for the narrator.
Reviewed by joelamp-01285 9 / 10

Solid and basic informational documentary.

Good documentary for its time if you are looking for a basic understanding of Earth's history. Straight forward narration and animation. It talks about history from the Hadean eon (4.6 billion years ago) all the way to the present day. The majority of the documentary focused on essential events that happened over 100 million years ago.Narration was definitely generic and bland but always gave factual information; no dramatization, no opinions, just facts. If you are looking to be entertained throughout this TV movie, that will most likely not happen. However, if you are watching this for purely educational and informational reasons, it will get the job done.
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