3D Blu-ray Review Sea Rex 3D Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

Sea Rex 3D is an interesting travelogue through the world of undersea dinosaurs, transferred over from the IMAX format to 3D Blu-ray.  As such, it’s a typical short IMAX documentary, in that much of the time is spent with a narrator providing a lot of scientific detail while the camera soars over vistas or through underwater landscapes.  The 3D works best when we see on-screen overlays from the various scientists participating in the project.  There are also occasional “poke in the eye” moments that don’t work as well, but the overall sense of depth is very nice.  This is more of a quick dip in the pool than an exhaustive documentary, but it’s a fun ride, and you’ll learn a thing or two along the way.

SEA REX 3D

JOURNEY TO A PREHISTORIC WORLD

Studio: Universal/3D Entertainment Distribution

Release Year:  2010

Length:  0:40:59

Genre:  Nature/Dinosaurs/Paleontology/3D/IMAX

Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1

BD Resolution and Codec: 1080p, MVC (average 20 mbps primary stream, 15 mbps secondary stream)

Audio:  English DTS-HD HR 5.1 (@ an average 2.0 mbps), French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Dutch, Czech, Arabic DTS 5.1, Danish, Polish Dolby Digital 5.1

Subtitles:   English SDH, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese, Arabic, Czech, Polish, Icelandic, Slovenian

Film Rating:  NR (Family Friendly Documentary – a few tense moments with sharks and dinosaurs, but nothing scary)

Release Date: November 15, 2011

Starring:  Richard Rider, Chloe Hollings, and a host of CGI seagoing dinosaurs

Screenplay by:  Pascal Vuong, Rick Dowlearn and Ronan Chapalain

Written and Directed by:  Pascal Vuong & Ronan Chapalain

Film Rating:    3/5

Sea Rex 3D is an IMAX 3D dinosaur documentary that packs in a fair amount of information in its short running time of about 41 minutes.   It initially existed as a short feature to be seen in an IMAX theater, but has now been transferred over to 3D Blu-ray without losing much.  What you’ll see is a quick introduction to the world of undersea dinosaurs, as divided between the three major periods of dinosaur life.  There’s a short look at the discovery of the first fossil, and then an ongoing discussion between a young, modern-day student, and Georges Cuvier, who appears to her and us to narrate the bulk of the feature.  Most of the time is spent looking at CGI dinosaurs in various environments, usually undersea, while Cuvier explains their various attributes.  At times, the action becomes tense, but the situation always works out before anything really scary happens.  As such, this is probably a good, harmless 3D piece for the whole family to watch, particularly given that it’s loaded with scientific information, albeit at a very simple level.

Sea Rex 3D is being released next week on 3D Blu-ray, in a version that holds both a 3D and a 2D version of the feature.  There are a couple of short extra features, but the main attraction here is the 3D documentary itself.

VIDEO QUALITY   4/5

Sea Rex 3D is presented in a 1080p1.78:1 MVC encode, which has two video streams running to create the 3D effect.   The 3D works best when it’s either presenting an overlay scenario, as is done multiple times throughout, or when it’s opening the depth of your screen.  There are a few “poke in the eye” moments that can be jarring, including the opening logos, but those are thankfully few and far between.  One bit later in the program has a dinosaur poking his head underwater and out of your screen at you, but that’s relatively harmless as far as the eye poke goes.  The colors and details throughout are quite strong, and the picture quality is such that the CGI tends to read as what it is – albeit very tastefully done.  The 2D version of the movie (an AVC encode at an average 25 mbps) is equally fine to watch, albeit without the 3D bells and whistles.  The better bet really is to watch it in 3D, but if that’s not an option, the 2D version will at least give you something.

AUDIO QUALITY    4/5

Sea Rex 3D is presented in an English DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix that is a pleasure to hear.  The voices are easy to understand, which is crucial in a piece like this, and there are a few surprising uses of the surround channels and the subwoofers to bring the prehistoric world to life.  There are audio mixes also available in DTS 5.1 for seven other languages, and in Dolby Digital 5.1 for two more.

SPECIAL FEATURES      2/5 

Sea Rex 3D comes with a couple of extras, including a quick featurette, a trailer, and an interview collection that overlaps the featurette.  All this material is presented in 1080p high definition and in 2D.  Collectively, it only takes up about 8 ½ minutes.

Featurette   (3:49, 1080p) – This quick featurette shows a bit of footage of the crew working on a greenscreen set with the cast, and includes brief interview snippets with the creative staff.  As the writer/director team are both French, their discussion here

may be a little harder to understand through the accents.  Thankfully, there are subtitles available to help when needed.

Interviews  (3:32, 1080p) – This is the raw interview material from which the featurette was assembled.  Some of the material is audio only.

Trailer (1:04, 1080p) – A fast trailer for the movie is presented, essentially showing some of the nicer CGI shots.

The movie and the special features are subtitled in English and a long list of other languages indicated at the top of the review.   A pop-up menu is present, along with a complete chapter menu, but this is not in the usual Universal format.  Part of the menu options is the choice whether to view the feature in 3D or 2D.  Appropriately enough, the menu itself is in 3D, so it floats in front of the screen. 

One quick note re the packaging:  For some reason, the packaging actually holds several errors.  It indicates that the audio is in the DTS-HD HR encode, when it’s in the DTS-HD MA encode.  It indicates that the special features are in 480p, when they are presented in 1080p.  And it indicates a running time for the feature of 58 minutes, when it actually runs only 41 minutes.  This is quite strange…

IN THE END...

Sea Rex 3D is an interesting 3D IMAX documentary that doesn’t go too deep or take too long to introduce viewers to the world of undersea dinosaurs.  There’s some fun 3D effects, particularly when used for overlays or depth enhancement, and a lot of narrated information to digest in a short 41 minutes.  This is fine for family 3D entertainment and learning.  For those that don’t have 3D sets, there’s also a 2D option. 

Kevin Koster

November 12, 2011.

Equipment now in use in this Home Theater:

Panasonic 65” VT30 Plasma 3D HDTV – set at “THX” picture mode

Denon AVR-3311Cl Receiver

Oppo BDP-93 Blu-ray Player

PS3 Player (used for calculation of bitrates for picture and sound)

5 Mirage Speakers (Front Left/Center/Right, Surround Back Left/Right)

2 Sony Speakers (Surround Left/Right – middle of room)

Martin Logan Dynamo 700 Subwoofer

There are a few “poke in the eye” moments that can be jarring, including the opening logos, but those are thankfully few and far between.

Click to expand...

First, thanks for the review, Kevin!!


I am a little confused by this.


Perhaps it's a personal preference thing, but isn't the
point of 3D to add some WOW moments of having
things lunge towards the audience?

I completely understand those who don't like the

gimmicks, but isn't there room for some give-and-take

when it comes to taking advantage of the process for

everything it is worth?


Again, perhaps this is just a personal preference issue.

I think you're right on that.


For me, I'm fine with certain things coming toward the audience, such as when the dinosaur dips its head in the ocean and plunges into the audience. It's just that there are some others, like the opening logos, that for some reason really jumped for me.


The best 3D I've seen, in Avatar, usually involves having a foreground object to establish some kind of baseline, and then a middle area, with depth behind it. Another sequence, in Despicable Me, uses the rollercoaster rails as a foreground, which causes the ride to really come to life. At the same time, Despicable Me does have a fun credit sequence where the Minions compete to get farther into the audience.


I think I'm more partial to the objects moving away from the viewer than at the viewer, or if they do move at the viewer, I prefer not to get the Friday the 13th 3D of the pitchfork or the machete...