The Film
Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk is a visually stunning IMAX production that focuses our attention on the very real and worsening problem of a dwindling water supply in the Colorado River. In a nutshell, years of drought, inefficient irrigation, and increased water consumption have taken a toll on the mighty Colorado and it's time we did something about it.
Narrated by the great Robert Redford with music and songs by the surprisingly-fitting Dave Matthews Band, River at Risk follows conservationist Wade Davis, his daughter, and college pal Robert F. Kennedy, Jr as they take a wet and wild journey through some of the Colorado's most intimidating rapids. Along the way, you can safely expect to see more than a few pretty pictures and hey, you might just learn something too.
Warning: you WILL get wet on this ride.
The Picture
Using a THX-certified LG PX950 plasma I have in for review, color saturation was quite pleasing and detail was generally excellent, particularly when we slow down at ground level and take in the rock face flanking both sides of the river.
Visual ghosting, the Achilles heel of Blu-ray 3D, does rear its ugly head at several points throughout the film. In fact, it's bad enough at times to make certain foreground objects (such as a fishing net protruding forward from a boat) look downright translucent. Thankfully, such ghosting anomalies are hardly the norm and the positives of the 3D immersion do outweigh the negatives. Personally, I'll be sticking to the downright gorgeous (and glasses-free) 2D presentation, but the fact that you can toggle between 2D and 3D any time you like makes the 3D debate a moot point with this title.
Also, as my editor likes to point out, repeatedly, cross-talk artifacts tend to be both a.) very subjective (different people experience it differently) and b.) extremely display-dependent so your mileage may vary with your eyes on your specific 3D display.
The Sound
The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack appears to have been ported over from the previous 2D-only release, and as before, it's rather engaging. Although much of the film involves listening to Mr. Redford or Wade Davis and his river guides, the river rapids action does crank up the fun with convincing splash sounds and even some crunching bass when things get really rough.
The Extras
Its nice to see that in addition to getting both the 2D and 3D versions of the film, we also get the previous bonus material carried forth to this release - something that's surely a lot easier to do when your film is only 45 minutes long. A brief making-of, a music video, and some conservation tips are what you can expect to find here, with the latter being the most useful. You should listen to what Mr. Kohler has to say here, but you should also remember the sage wisdom of my good friend Josh: "While you're brushing your teeth, turn off the damned faucet!" Maybe we can get Kohler to engrave that into their sinks.
Final Thoughts
Grand Canyon: River at Risk is one of several IMAX 3D titles now making its way to Blu-ray 3D from the folks at Image, and it's also one of the best. Although it may not be "the most pressing environmental story of our time" as the box would have you believe, maintaining our planet's fresh water supply is an important issue and it's one we should all be more mindful of. And with this disc's impressive 3D visuals, I find myself for the first time eager to see where Blu-ray 3D might go from here.
Product Details
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