‘Our Planet II’ Review Visually Astonishing With A Strong Message

In years gone by David Attenborough’s documentaries would have us on the edge of our seat. As we watch in vein at the survival attempts of animals across the world. We would watch some of the most beautiful footage of planet earth without much political message.

That has now changed with Attenborough free from the BBC’s impartiality rules, in partnership with the World Wide Fund for Nature and a budget never available before from Netflix. We get to see humanities impact on nature.

The theme of the series is migration, how and why these animals need to move to survive. Earths ever changing climate, means wildlife is adapting.

The series opens with a textbook hunt as water buffalo move across the African plains in search of fresh grazing. A pride of lions are positioning in the long grass ready to strike, they takedown a buffalo in spectacular style.

We are then taken to some of the most remote islands on Earth, where we encounter a young albatross. Surviving shouldn’t be this hard for a baby albatross. Without a predator in sight on this beach what are the dangers?

Plastic, the entire shoreline is smothered in plastic. With chicks and parents confusing small pieces of plastic for food it’s a death sentence as we watch the young bird dry heave as it desperately tries to remove plastic from its stomach.

The four episodes will give you plenty of perspective. In particular to the artic, where polar bears that are used to walking across the ice caps are now having to swim long distances. These bears are exhausted and struggling to feed themselves.

It’s not all political, the visuals are spectacular, it’s a must watch in 4K UHD it’s truly beautiful. There are some really interesting segments including a swarm of 30,000 bees moving house, how an oil rig has provided an eco-system and penguins that live in the jungle.

In conclusion Our Planet II is captivating, thought provoking and visually impressive. Although there are some disheartening moments, there are instances of human intervention to aid natures migration routes and efforts to conserve endangered species.

My only gripe, it should have been longer 4 episodes didn’t feel enough and I have to praise David Attenborough at 97 still working on projects like this, it’s inspiring.

You can watch all 4 episodes of Our Planet II now on Netflix.