Azmin can I have your Rambutan?

I went to watch the french documentary: The March of the Penguins today.

I tried to keep myself awake. I really did. I tried and tried desperately but the language was foreign to me. As I tried to concentrate on the images in front of me, I couldn't help but nod off. Before I knew it, the Islamic Law lecture was over and it was time to get out of LT19. Yes. I fell asleep in class. Sue me. On second thoughts, don't. I have no money. But I digress.

Yes, this post IS about the march of the penguins. By the fact that it's a documentary, one has to be mentally prepared to be bored by repetitive images of nothing but animals and mother nature. Ala National Geographic. But no. This is different. Or at least tries to be. It injects annoying snippets of Bjork like music numbers which totally detract from the mood of the scene and basically throws one off track and leaves the poor audience going WTF was that for? Not to say the images weren't good. Obviously if you're following a penguin tribe around for 12 months, you're bound to get 2hrs of good footage at least (He accumulated 120hrs of footage total). I'm sure it was hell doing the editing for this documentary but I'm sad to say it didn't work for me.

In a way, I'm not particularly impressed by wildlife documentaries. I much prefer documentaries that do interviews and go behind the scenes. At least it shows that there's much effort in the script and the director knows where he wants the audience to go. E.g. Bowling for Columbine. Clever editing + amazing content = An audience convinced of whatever the documentary is trying to establish (even though some say it's missing some facts/it's too selective, but that's editing!). Here in PENGUINS, we all know what the story is. Basically how the Emperor Penguin travels, mates, hatches and looks after the kid and the trials and tribulations in between. Predictable? Very. Hard? Not really. Stick to the tribe and you pretty much get everything. After getting the images, then get a rough story to link up the images. Not that difficult. I'm sure there's more work involved, but I fail to appreciate animal documentaries as I've already mentioned.

This is not to say PENGUINS isn't any good. It was a little draggy, but achieved the goal of showing us how amazing these little buggers really are. Yes, one can almost say that they're human like in their perserverance and shit. But then again, I have to be honest. I fell asleep. Twice. Once when they were mating. Another during the snowstorm. Unfortunately for me, I guess I didn't enjoy it that much because I was very tired. Sure. Penguins are cute. But after 10 minutes, I had penguin overkill. It was only when the babies were born then did I wake up a little. Those babies are mutha cute. Somehow the in betweens weren't very compelling and very much predictable. I wanted it to surprise me. I wanted it to touch me (get your mind out of the gutter!). But it didn't. Why it's held in such high regard might be attributed to the fact that it's bloody hard to film or follow the tribe in sub-zero conditions for 12 months. Therefore, it might be the first time anyone's seen this sorta thing. In a way, many people are surprised at how human-like these penguins are. How much they see of themselves in the little birds. I hate to shatter your ego, but if you've realised that all animals (or living things with brains) are capable of love, care and concern (even anguish and various other feelings), then you'll realise that this is really just another National Geographic Special. I cannot comprehend how humans can think feelings are exclusive to homo sapians. How egoistic. Pfft.

Bottom line after all that crap. If you want to be touched by the perserverance of these penguins (and if you're not as skeptical as me), do give it a try. The girls might like it. Afterall, most girls love furry huggable things. Penguins are the ideal subjects. If you like beautiful images of snowy landscapes (I did appreciate the scenary), this is also for you. It's not something to burn time with, but it sure as hell is something to watch when you're fully awake. Don't go into this one tired or sleepy. You'll probably fall asleep during the mating bit. Their calls ARE very alluring.

PS: Try to watch the one narrated by Morgan Freeman. I heard it's much better than the French or *SHOCK HORROR* Mandarin version.

PPS: Please do not shriek and go "OH HOW CUTE IS THAT!" or "AWWWWWWW" when you see the penguin babies or when the penguinss wobble and fall over. Please. We're 20 year olds. We leave that to the kids.

PPPS: A documentary is all about perspective. When we see a penguin die, we go sad and think: IT'S NOT FAIR. In reality, if I were doing a documentary about fish, and the penguin comes along and eats my fish (or main lead), I'm sure you'll think the same way too. Perspective.