REVIEW - CHASING ICE

The theory is that the statistics go in one ear and out the other, but that the natural beauty of our Earth is unforgettable. The statistics still pack a punch, though, for me at least, since there are clearly enough facts and figures which we aren't aware of. You drill deeper into this, you only seem to find more and more evidence. I thought it, and then the film stated it: why are we still arguing? Surely if there is a small chance that we are causing irreparable damage to this planet, we ought to do all that we can to try to put it right? This rotten tooth isn't going to heal itself. Perhaps, as blocks of ice as big as a small country calve off into the sea, and few more magnificent spectacles of such awesome devastation you're likely to ever see, you'll feel as I did - how could we have done this to our planet? We are wholly, entirely, unquestionably 100% reliant on it, and yet we abuse it so badly. This is bad news, on an unfathomably large scale, and it's old news. The natural beauty gives way to horror, as ice gives way to water, and Chasing Ice ends on a reflective, elegiac note in its credit sequence, thoroughly worth sitting through, as all those in attendance at my screening did. More of this beauty, or the horror, or even the statistics would have bolstered the film, though, since these truly are unforgettable, whereas the film's human subject, James Balog, is not.