Review: David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet

After originally being scheduled for release in April, it's time for the icon that is Sir David Attenborough to bring what he calls his 'witness statement' to the big screen.

For several decades, Attenborough has introduced many generations across the world to the wonders that the world has to offer. Whether it be largely unknown lands, obscure plants or unusual animals, it is usually accompanied by the calming tones of Attenborough's voice narrating what we're seeing on screen. Whether you know the name or not, you will most notably definitely know the voice.

His programmes have become must-watch events due to the striking imagery it has to offer whether it be the animal or locations. Sadly, Attenborough has recently turned his attention more to the fact of how we as a species are destroying the planets biodiversity to levels of causing a mass extinction event, and what we must do to stop this from happening.

There are some nice archive footage of the beginnings of his career along with some startling statistics that gradually change as the film goes on to a shocking degree. We also have the usual eye-pleasing footage of Earth's nature in all its glory that we all know so well from Attenborough's shows.

Then when we get to the more important part of the documentary. It honestly started to feel like I was watching a horror film with the amount of nightmarish imagery I was seeing. The level of shock was something I was not prepared for and I was very scared that I and many others in my screening could be living in a world that I'm seeing on screen that could wipe us out as a species.

This honestly did feel like Attenborough's last plea to the world before he leaves it, which I'm sure many of you agree is a sad thing to see from someone who has given so much. There were moments where you can see it in his face where he looked defeated in his attempts to get the world leaders to work together and begin the healing process. Those moments were really effective and it certainly sparked a few sniffling of noses in my screening.

But it does give the audience plenty of hope with examples of what could be done and what has been done in certain countries with already amazing results that I could not believe was achieve. This certainly gives us enough hard evidence to prove even the heaviest of non-believers his predictions to not being said with a tinfoil hat.

So while most of the content won't be nothing new to people up to date with Attenborough's shows and history as well as current news events, this still felt like an important piece of work that everyone needs to check out due to the global significance of its subject matter. I would happily show this to people of all ages as it is something everyone can get a grasp of and understand how this planet works and what we need to do for it to succeed and for our species to keep thriving without destroying our home planet in the process. It was highly informative, expectedly gorgeous to look at when it came to the nature content, scary at times to the levels of a high-quality horror film but also remained hopeful with some inspiring images of a possible future.

This documentary will be released on Netflix on October 4th if you missed out on its one-night only cinematic screening. After the credits, they did show a 30-minute interview with Attenborough by Michael Palin which I hope will be shown on Netflix as well, as it was a nice addition to end what was a memorable viewing experience.

Rating: 7/10