AMAZON

Directed by Keith Merrill

At the Muger Omni Theater, Museum of Science

Through Jan. 10

The rain forests are being destroyed at an alarming rate and with them, the cures for just about any disease imaginable. This is taught to every second grader, and it is one of the main themes in the new IMAX film Amazon. Now playing at the Boston Museum of Science, Amazon follows two medicine men--an American ethnobotonist and a tribal shaman--on their separate quests for new plants and possible medicines, before they are gone. Although it hasn't been as well publicized as Everest, the other IMAX film currently playing at the museum, crowds of a respectable size still venture out into the night to see the show, even in the middle of the week. Why? For the same reason anyone sees an IMAX--the spectacular visual experience.

For people who have never been in an IMAX theater, or who have only seen the shows on flat rectangular screens, the five-story dome of the museum's Omni Theater is quite a pleasant shock. The screen curves and stretches upward on all sides until the panels catch up with each other and meet harmoniously in a perfect half-sphere, forming a deceivingly delicate, pearly shell that encompasses and dominates the audience for the entire show. The viewer might be tempted to complain about neck strain, but the seats do recline. Besides, when the movie actually starts, one will realize that this is the only way to be surrounded by an infinite sky, and feel the urge to fly or fall right into it.

It is fortunate that Amazon relies so heavily on stunning cinematography, because as an attempt to tell a story, the film fails rather comically. It is not intended to be a documentary, and it doesn't try to do anything more than give a quick and superficial tour of the Amazonian rain forests. Even with all the colorful visual distractions sprinkled throughout the film, one can't help but notice the handling of this clumsy plot. The persistent "rain forests can cure anything" mantra is annoyingly condescending, but without it, one might as well be watching a per-flight nature video with complementary Vivaldi playing on the soundtrack. Incidentally, the musical score is one of the better aspects of the film. It is majestic, holy and beautiful, right when it needs to be and never gets out of hand.

The movie has to use its weak storyline to justify gorgeous panoramas of the icy Andes, Amazonian waterfalls and a view of South America from space that can only be called awesome. Other exotic images include pink dolphins, bigger-than-life insects and creatures that look so absurd they're almost cute. Naturally, the famous Amazonian piranhas and other such dangerous beasts show up and startle the audience, if not with their teeth then with their alien appearances. The mountains tower so high they threaten to break the sky-dome of the screen, the forest envelopes the viewer on all sides with its strange beauty and noise, and the audience can truly be lost in the wilderness of South America.

Several Amazonian tribes get their fair share of screen time. Yes, they help the heroes find new specimens and herbs, but they are also there for the shock value: Who wouldn't be surprised, if not alarmed, at the sight of a man's lower lip pierced with something that bears an uncomfortable resemblance to a stick of bamboo? There is a feeble attempt to enrich the viewer's historical understanding of the discovery of and relations with various tribes, but pay no attention to it. Most people will probably ignore it anyway.

The mighty Amazon river itself is seldom referred to or shown. Portrayed in popular culture as a romantic mystery of steaming jungles, wild native peoples and unpredictable currents, the Amazon river shown here looks calm and serene in the mid-morning sunlight.

While not as informative as a National Geographic special on a mediocre day, and not quite as entertaining as a decent feature film (which has a comparable admission price), Amazon still offers a fun alternative to staying home. It is worth both the time and temporary discomfort to the neck, even if only because it is an IMAX show. It might not be educational in the strictest sense, but that is not the point. Like most, if not all IMAX pictures, Amazon is all about being swallowed up by a world of vivid color and humbled by man's own insignificant size.