Blackfish

I should have been an easy target for the documentary Blackfish. I don't like to see animals of any kind kept in confined spaces; so I didn't need convincing that young orca shouldn't be captured, "trained" and displayed in tanks for the entertainment of humans.

There also seems to be a significant amount of evidence to suggest that the male orca Tilikum has killed 3 people and that the owners of the SeaWorld park have failed to take proper responsibility.

And yet this documentary totally fails for me. Most of it is "talking heads" shots of former employees recounting their experiences and reactions to later events. There is little information on who the people are, what their qualifications are, how long they worked there and why they left the park. I was left with the impression that most of them worked there when they were "too young to know better" and now regret the association.

The experts are not presented much better. The lady describing how she put an orca in an MRI scanner and discovered its advanced emotions was just so cringe-worthy. There were some solid fact-based pieces, but they were swamped by the fluff.

How the makers made such a bad presentation of the footage they had, I don't know. There is one section which was completely gripping - where the male trainer survived a drowning attack by staying very calm - but otherwise I think this was an opportunity fumbled, if not entirely missed.