Atlantis on AllMovie

As a child of undersea divers, director Luc Besson, who is perhaps best known in the U.S. for La Femme Nikita and The Fifth Element, yearned to become a marine biologist. After spending his entire childhood diving, an accident rendered him unable to dive again, and he turned his energies to becoming a filmmaker instead. However, he never lost his love of the underwater world he grew up in, and this poetic documentary is a hymn to the beauties of that world. It takes underwater footage shot all over the world in slightly over three years time and weaves it with a variety of musical accompaniments into an astonishing visual treat. Without any preaching, this movie makes a strong case for preservation of our rapidly deteriorating ocean world.