Chasing Ice
National Geographic Channel | Release Date: November 9, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
75
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 15 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierNov 8, 2012
This amazingly beautiful, and amazingly frightening, documentary captures the immediacy of what climate change is doing to the Arctic landscape. Read full review
90
The New York TimesNeil GenzlingerNov 8, 2012
The film doesn't just serve up Mr. Balog's amazing and undeniably convincing imagery. It also records his personal struggles as knee problems threaten his ability to hike the difficult terrain to get the shots he wants. Read full review
85
NPRMark JenkinsNov 8, 2012
In Hollywood these days, such epic transformations are rendered with computers and called "morphing." Offering a lesson both to filmmakers and climate-change deniers, Chasing Ice demonstrates how much more powerful it is to capture the real thing. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanDec 5, 2012
When we finally see the time-lapse images his cameras took, they're awesome and terrifying - a meltdown out of a poetic horror film. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesMark OlsenNov 23, 2012
The before and after imagery of Balog's project speaks for itself, with the power and strange beauty of the evolving landscape strong evidence that something is indeed happening, now and fast. Read full review
75
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanNov 16, 2012
Chasing Ice aims to accomplish, with pictures, what all the hot air that has been generated on the subject of global warming hasn't been able to do: make a difference. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrNov 15, 2012
Orlowski does share Balog's smoldering rage at a society that refuses to face the consequences of its actions, and that rage forms the necessary spine of Chasing Ice. This is an agit-doc with no apologies and a lot of sorrow. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertNov 14, 2012
Heart-stopping in its coverage of the brave and risky attempt by a scientist named James Balog and his team of researchers on the Extreme Ice Survey, where "extreme" refers to their efforts almost more than to the ice. Read full review
70
Village VoiceChuck WilsonNov 7, 2012
Still and live-action footage captures the ice sliding into the sea with exquisite grace, which makes it all the more wrenching. Are such images enough to convince the naysayers that something unnatural is occurring? Doubtful. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeNov 4, 2012
A documentary so stuffed with eye-soothing images one prays it can seduce a climate-change skeptic or two. Read full review
70
VarietyJustin ChangNov 4, 2012
Following the exhaustive efforts of photographer-scientist James Balog to capture irrefutable evidence of the world's glaciers in retreat, first-time helmer Jeff Orlowski's documentary supplies a heroic human-interest angle on global warming that's ultimately less remarkable than the grandeur of its arctic imagery. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubAlison WillmoreNov 14, 2012
As someone who admits to having harbored skepticism about climate change himself, two decades ago, Balog is trying to present an image-based response to all the denialists featured in the news montages scattered through the film, people who scoff at the numbers and lack of scientific consensus on whether global warming exists, and what it entails. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenNov 9, 2012
The impact should be visceral and gut-wrenching; instead, it's cool and cerebral – after all, we're being lectured in a lecture hall. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineThomas HachardNov 4, 2012
If you need it, the documentary offers a devastating, and often beautifully shot, reality check. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoNov 23, 2012
His personal efforts are praiseworthy, but if glacial melting is in fact the "canary in the climate coal mine" (his words), the movie might have given us a bit less of Balog and a bit more of the startling sequences he produced. Read full review
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