Everyone dies eventually. No, we don’t mean each person as a living organism will inevitably face death, we mean everyone of us lumpy humans will one day be dead. And the world will be left here laughing at us. Not just laughing though, recovering too. You see, it turns out all of our plastics, smelting and constructing of high rises will have lasting effects on this blue and green marble spinning in space. What Life After People explores is just how long those effects will stick around. Right here and now: guess how long you think it will take for humanity’s presence to fade entirely from this planet. Chances are your guess was somewhere within the realm of reason…until you ask about Styrofoam, which is incidentally the material of doom.
Yes folks, it turns out it’s not our contributions to the skyline that will stand as testaments to humanity’s impact on this world, but the stuff you use to pack other things. You know what’s irksome about that truth? Life After People willfully misleads you into considering the premise from a solely metro centric point of view and doesn’t even mention that fact until you’ve sat through the first 9/10 of the feature. A bit devious wouldn’t you say?
Using CGI renderings of the world’s cities and its landmarks, the creators of Life After People gradually scale the planets recovery step by step. Starting with our immediate demise and working all the way past 10,000 years of human absence, the feature charts plant-growth, animal territory expansions and newfound terra-forming as all elements of nature take hold of human progress and tear it asunder. It’s as if the most vocal proponents of green-living got together in a room and had a joint wet-dream about what they wish would happen to humanity. That sounds overly pessimistic, but someone involved in this piece took great pleasure in imagining the planet’s recovery.
What makes the show remotely educational are the parallels drawn to current events and existing evidence backing up how each fingerprint of humankind will be wiped away. First to go? Our well-paved streets and sidewalks. Within months or even weeks plants will creep up between the cracks and begin laying waste to highways and walkways. As that happens domestic animals will either adapt to the new conditions or die starving and alone in the locked palaces of their homo sapiens. Months after that wilderness begins creeping back into the concrete jungles and plants take further strides in redominating the planet we stole away. To analyze what happens 10 or 20 years down the road, the program takes a look at a city abandoned after the events of Chernobyl and makes compelling arguments for the realism of the whole situation. Yes, humanity has abandoned its cities before and nature’s relapse is often quite immediate and forceful.
The CGI makes for interesting high definition viewing but it’s nothing so stunning that you’ll be lifting your jaw from the floor. What will ensnare you is the look at the substances we’ve created that have a lifetime far exceeding our own. The audio, comprised mainly of a straight-laced narrator, doesn’t take advantage of the format’s crisp sound but chances are you weren’t expecting it to. It’s an interesting piece, but its presence on a high-def disc begs questioning when it comes time for that purchase.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
Additional scenes supplement the tidings of doom and extinction that this special touts with great pride. Yes, we’re all going to die. When that happens mother earth seems all too willing to wipe the slate clean and start over. The additional scenes only go on to show the viewer the futility of man’s quest for eternal remembrance. Heck, as the special says itself, this review’s chances of being found by a future civilization has less of a chance than that copy of Dan Brown’s book you purchased (everyone did, don’t be embarrassed). If there was ever a valid argument against going completely digital versus printed media, you’ll find it in Life After People.
"Life After People" is on sale September 1, 2009 and is rated NR. Documentary, Horror, Television. Directed by David De Vries. Written by David de Vries. Starring Struan Rodger.
