The Cove

Rating: 8.2/10
Genre: Documentary

Overall value for money and time: 8.5/10

The movie poster is highly deceiving. From experience, whenever you know a movie is going to be of conspiracies, its best to leave the sypnosis unread. Which was what I did before entering the cinema. However, I was under the impression that The Cove was referring to an underwater cave where dolphins were mistreated or something of that sort, where there will be beautiful underwater landscapes, with dolphins streaming along divers side by side.

Well, this movie was everything NOT what I had in mind, only the dolphins. This documentary is a wakeup call to all oceanic wildlife abusers and a bold call for support to stop senseless slaughtering of one of man's best friends. A group of oceanic protection society (OPS) members lead by Ric O'Barry (the original trainer of "Flipper" - a hit TV series which popularised human-dolphin relationships) go "undercover" in Taiji, Japan to uncover one of the most shocking coverups of dolphin abuse.

Despite being a documentary, there were some elements which made it more like an espionage movie when the story was told. The organisation of the film was typical of a movie - with a mocking opening, the unfolding of a conspiracy, the "night vision" scenes and how the ending rounded everything up. We all know that when documentaries are showed, there's never a convenient definite, rounded, "happy" ending.

But this movie truly did serve its purpose. It created not only the awareness, but also the hatred towards the fishermen, the mayor of Taiji and those involved in the conspiracy - what I felt was the subliminal underlying message of the film. What I liked about the film is the irony, that the very man who started it all, is the very man who's trying so hard to end it all... An eye-opening, disturbing yet provocative film about the "rights" and "wrongs" of this world.