Sea Rex review

We all have our memories of seeing palaeo-documentaries, whether in theatres on online. Today we review one such I was obsessed with seeing back in the day, Sea Rex: Journey to a Prehistoric World. We're reviewing it because around the time I wrote this I lately developed an oceanic obsession and watched both this, National Geographic's Sea Monsters (that hopefully will come up later), and listening to Moana songs.

The film runs down the history of the Mesozoic's marine reptiles and touches upon the scientific history of them, in particular using Georges Cuvier and the famous Maastricht Mosasaurus hoffmani. Georges himself appears courtesy of Richard Rider in the film's framing device, where he co-hosts with Julie, a woman played by Chloe Hollings (the future voice of Widowmaker) in an aquarium as he explains things to her and audience. Its not clear if he's his ghost or a figment of her imagination, and the film doesn't seem to explain it either way. We get our first major prehistoric sequence where we flashback to Colorado at the tail end of the cretaceous. We see some parasaurolophus (who strangely have skin flaps on them like they came out of the 1930's) and some not too bad azhdarchids to establish what was going on in the mesozoic with reptiles, before we see out first marine reptile, a plesiosaur doing its best to imitate Nessie by craning its neck out before we see the asteroid strike. In this, bullet time cheesily occurs, but at least we get this cool shot, looking much like Charles R. Knight could have made it.

The first bit segues in to introduce the concept of deep time, where George elaborates how recent humanity is versus the total history of the earth, using the always great clock metaphor. After going over the Paleozoic and how the Mesozoic's book-ended by extinctions, he then explains to Julie about the three ages of marine reptiles: ichthyosaurs in Triassic, plesiosaurs in the Jurassic, and mosasaurs in the [late] Cretaceous.

After that is our first proper scene, where we're whisked to Triassic Switzerland, where we see such creatures like a pair of Tanystropheus (back when it was depicted as aquatic) providing us with an easy 3D shot, some placodonts hunting shellfish (and are correctly identified as not being turtles), Nothosaurus (can't have Triassic seas without them), and two finally ichthyosaurs, the first major predators of the mesozoic sea. The first is the little Mixosaurus, before we see a pod of the second, the giant Shonisaurus. Now while the fauna otherwise indicates the segment takes place in the Besano Formation and should thus include Cymbospondylus, another work, the great Chased By Sea Monsters already has it, so I'm not complaining, and if you're gonna use another, why not the biggest ichthyosaur ever? The biggest part isn't helped by how they seem to be more bloated then most depictions I'm used to, but I might be wrong. Although one point off for how they merely exist just to show off majesty, and don't get any kind of hunting sequence with them, gulping down cephalopods.

We then get two talking segments. The first features USC Davis’ Ryosuke Motani explaining how brilliantly preserved specimens of ichthyosaurs allow scientists to study live birth in them and their giant eyes of Ophthalmosaurus. Afterwards, Julie wonders aloud how people extinct millions of years ago, and thus we cut to a different talking head segment. Because you can never dicsuss marine reptiles without bringing up the famous British collector Mary Anning, the next one has Nathalie Bardet of National Museum of Natural History, France introduces us to her and how she discovered many fossils now at London's Natural History Museum, including the plesiosaur Rhomaelosaurus. While the specimen seen in the segment is in real life and has several casts, here its CG, mostly to allow it to come to live and swim away for us to move on to the Jurassic, the age of plesiosaurs. We begin with Georges summing up the basics of Jurassic life (giving us cameos from Megalosaurus and the marine croc Dakosaurus, albeit under its copyrighted nickname Godzilla) in a fairly creative side-scrolling animation. We then segue into the next subject, the iconic pliosaur Liopleurodon.

If you know what the real thing was like, Oof

Now unfortunately, its design and size are a bit inaccurate and oversized, much like the certain work which made it famous. And for some reason, its segment is set in the Argentine Andes, said to be part of its range alongside Europe. Now granted, fossils have been assigned to the genus as well as pliosaurs in general (Fernandez 2007) from the region, but they're dubious for the former at best. The segment itself depicts a mating encounter between two of them, and occasional janky animation aside, its quite beautiful thanks to the score and lovely lighting effects, and definitely the film's highlight.

We then get another talking head segment, with Zulma Gaspirini, where she discusses the theory of Continental drift was proposed in part thanks to the marine reptile Mesosaurus. Its nice, but I don't see how it ties into Liopleurodon and plesiosaurs. We return afterwards to the segment, we observe some plesiosaurs identified only as elasmosaurs (27 million years before they actually appeared; were cryptoclidids going to make it more a WWD ripoff?) before one gets a chase with the male Liopleurodon from the previous one. Its a nice tense segment.

The next talking head happens in a void with Elasmosaurus and Kronosaurus skeletons, where the swedish Benjamin Kear runs down the differences between the two major groups, plesiosaurids and pliosaurids. Its fine, but I ask: Why the heck is Kear a CG skeleton? Its supposed to be a fun image, but to me its confusing, and for all I and all of you know, that maybe just be some other dude and not him in motion capture.

Well it is Spooktober, the Spoopy season...

Finally, we reach the cretaceous to discuss the titular Sea Rex: the sea lizards known as mosasaurs, bringing things full circle. Sure enough, we go to the Netherlands for the sequence where the original fossil was found. Its here we get introduced to both a shark and a mosasaur... Prognathodon (which is known from the area and formation, to be fair). A fight's due to break out, but we don't actually see it - after a freeze on the charging shark, it cuts to its fin sinking, as the Prognathodon swims off.

The last talking head for the film is with Olivier Rieppel of the Field Museum, who indeed helps bring things full circle by discussing Cuvier's study of Mosasaurus and how it helped bring about the idea of deep time and extinction before humanity. The final segment takes place where the first one was, in Maastrichtian Colorado, where a Mosasaurus, the titular Sea Rex, is awakened and goes after both sharks and a sea turtle, in the process not earning its title to me. Rather dumbly, Julie expresses surprise at sharks living on both sides of the Atlantic as if its some revelutionary idea in the same segment, just so Georges can explain how sea life can have cosmopolitan ranges. It ends with the same one from the beginning, with the mosasaur witnessing the K-Pg Impact, in the process getting a neat perspective shot within its mouth as it closes. The film ends proper with Julie back at the same tank, apparently the film's event apparently being a dream, and leaving, only to find a tooth Georges Cuvier gave her, so maybe it was RealAfterAll? Who care, story isn't our main concern in documentaries like these.

So how does it hold up after years? Not too badly. One thing I do like about Sea Rex is the focus on science. As seen above, there are many interviews with real scientists, who give crucial context and information about the biology and history of marine reptiles. More broadly, the film is about Deep Time, where the main idea is how old the Earth is and has changed over time. Given it was shown in science museums/centers, this obviously makes fitting sense.

The visuals are also very good. The use of 3D here is quite well-used, too, such as using inserts or having the creatures swim around. Its the least the film can do, but still.

The designs of the marine life are all good and generally hold up. Some of my favourites are the Rhomaelosaurus, Liopleurodon, and Mosasaurus. All are rather good even for their time*. Meanwhile, in teems of presentation, most of them are presented to accentuate the huge scale of them, such as Shonisaurus and Liopleurodon, by distant shots and using other animals the show them off, and does well.

* Though for the former most, I can't help but be reminded of this stock model.

Behaviour-wise, nothing's too bad, with animals acting as animals do with nothing weird or out of the ordinary.

Finally the music is also stellar and atmospheric, suiting everything well, like its main theme and use of strings and choir.

Now for the bad parts and criticisms I have of this IMAX film.

Richard and Chloe's acting and dialogue outside of narration isn't the best. Admittedly no one watches Imax documentaries for acting, but their delivery is quite flat and generic at best. Admittedly, Richard fare better in my opinion. Also, Chloe's lines feel awfully childish, as though she were meant to be one in earlier drafts of the film as one review I've seen before.

The CG doesn't blend as well as it could and the creatures look pasted in at times, especially when compared to Sea Monsters from three years earlier. There's also a bit much in the way of paddleball shots.

There are some major inaccuracies in there, whether as a result of Science Marching On or plain old getting it wrong. 

• A good example of the former is that the plesiosaurs and mosasaurs lack tail flukes like fish or ichthyosaurs do instead of eel-like fringes for the latter or bare things for the former. However, thanks to skin impressions of very well-preserved specimens, we now know otherwise. There's also the fact that as mentioned, a plesiosaur is seen craning its neck up like a swan out of the water. Even 12 years ago this was well-known to be inaccurate
• You also species a bit bigger then they were in life. The greatest example is Liopleurodon. Thanks to Walking With... using an unrelated discovery (Ben G. Thomas explains it better then I can), most people seem to remember it as being way bigger then the six-metre creature it was in life. Same goes for  the giant fish Leedsichthys, decribed as 100 feet long/30 metres instead of  10 metres.
• Another error you aren't aware of is that a good chunk of the reptiles have mottled patterns on their skin. Given what we know of modern analogues, its a bit more likely they were countershaded black and white, like sharks are.
• Tanystropheus is shown in the ocean, and while not shown swimming its on a rock isolated from the shore. A good chunk of evidence since 2005 has suggested it was mostly terrestrial and not suit for an aquatic nature.

As for anachronisms and misplacements, see what I wrote above. You also haves the giant fish Leedsichthys in Argentina with the Lio too, though to be fair sea vertebrates can have ranges much bigger then land dwellers, though that depends on specific clades - especially in pliosaurs, they seem to be limited due to being unsuited for open ocean travel.

Finally, in terms of story and content I do feel the film could touch upon more theme and theorems more, like how shifting continents led to environmental changes that led to faunal turnovers (and making Zulma's segment more needed), thus for instance bringing mosasaurs' rise with the extinction of the pliosaurs during the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary event, and maybe relate it to modern-day climate change.

Hey that gives me an idea for end segments I've been meaning to have: end each of these reviews with shorts listing how else I'd improve them! Here are some ideas:

• Increase runtime to 50 minutes
• With the above suggestions in mind, have one new segment about the origin of mosasaurs with Dallasaurus interacting with say, the pliosaur Brachauchenius or Megacephalosaurus.
• Make Julie a child to make her rather childish dialogue more sense and have her want to see both a dinosaur while being a bit ignorant of climate change and its consequences including extinction, and Georges is here to correct her.

Otherwise, Sea Rex 3D is a very good doc for what it is and as it is.

• Accuracy - 7/10
• Aging - 7/10
• Presentation - 9/10
• Visuals - 8/10
• Music - 7/10
• Storytelling - 7/10
• Rewatchability 8/10
• Overall: 8/10

While not perfect, Sea Rex is both informative and enjoyable, and I recommend it for palaeo-fans, nostalgic folk, and newcomers to marine palaeontology.

Next time, depending on what I finish first, we'll either see the other Imax marine doc I've been watching, flash back further then usual, or look at one of the more problematic tropes in Paleo-Media in my book. Until then, bye and enjoy your Spooktober season!

See Also:

• Dino Lab, another doc I've reviewed where Ryosuke Motani appears

Sources/References

• M. Fernández. 2007. Redescription and phylogenetic position of Caypullisaurus (Ichthyosauria: Ophthalmosauridae).  Journal Of paleontology. 81(2):368-375
• Lindgren, Kaddumi & Polcyn (2008). Soft tissue preservation in a fossil marine lizard with a bilobed tail fin, Nature Communications 4, Article number: 2423 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms3423
• Noe, Leslie F.; Jeff Liston; Mark Evans (2003). "The first relatively complete exoccipital-opisthotic from the braincase of the Callovian pliosaur, Liopleurodon" (PDF). Geological Magazine. UK: Cambridge University Press. 140 (4): 479–486. Bibcode:2003GeoM..140..479N. doi:10.1017/S0016756803007829. S2CID 22915279.
• Renesto, S. (2005). "A new specimen of Tanystropheus (Reptilia, Protorosauria) from the Middle Triassic of Switzerland and the ecology of the genus". Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia. 111 (3): 377–394.
• Witton, Mark (13 November 2015). "Mark Witton.com Blog: The lifestyle of Tanystropheus, part 1: was that neck too heavy for use on land?". Retrieved 23 September 2018.
• Witton, Mark (11 December 2015). "Mark Witton.com Blog: The lifestyle of Tanystropheus, part 2: coastal fisher or first-day-on-the-job aquatic predator?". Retrieved 23 September 2018.