Review: Seaspiracy **

Netflix's documentary on overfishing proves to be out of its depth

Image from BBC

When I pressed the play button on Seaspiracy, I was conscious of the hype it received. Declarations of "incredibly important", "shocking", and "the most urgent documentary of our time" - believe it or not - have all been used to describe it. Though I must admit, as someone who viewed it a few years after the release date, it hasn't really come up in conversation between its release date and the current year - outside of the initial 2-week hype, of course.

I agree that overfishing and pollution are two of the biggest causes of biodiversity loss (among other issues) in the world's oceans, and I appreciate the spotlight, yet I spent the runtime largely unaffected by what was presented to me. By the time the credits had begun rolling I was far from captivated.

Perhaps my expectations were too high, but I was hoping for something that would go further in depth on its subject rather than a touch and go approach. It left me frustrated; nothing new was brought forward. This is understandable, considering there have been many articles and documentaries on the issue, but with there being not so much as even a novel perspective or starting point from director Ali Tabrizi has resulted in more to be desired.

The approach the director takes (along with the sketchy editing) has left a bad taste in my mouth. Everything is presented as if he's the only person to learn of mass/commercial fishing methods and the ramifications it has on the local environment, the first person to discover that plastic is bad, the first person to stumble upon a sea of waste on our shores and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch floating around in the ocean. It all feels incredibly opportunistic.

Feel free to accuse me of having a chip on my shoulder, but the entire documentary feels like an effort by a rich kid (approximately 28 at the time of release) with the need to feel important, who chose to focus on and tackle a task as vast and significant as the welfare of the ocean to prove himself as a serious filmmaker.

Tabrizi posits himself as a groundbreaking documentarian when in actuality he's walking along treaded ground, which proved to indeed be a frustrating and underwhelming watch.