Sundance review: 'Deep Rising' features beautiful undersea footage, and some shady dealings on land

Beautiful undersea footage and some ugly human activity share top billing in “Deep Rising,” a documentary that follows the efforts of late-stage capitalism to exploit the last place on Earth it hasn’t already dug in: The depths of the oceans.

The first human we see in director Matthieu Rytz’s film is Gerard Barron of DeepGreen Metals, preaching the gospel of clean-energy vehicles, and what he calls an environmentally friendly way to mine the rare earths and other metals needed to make their batteries. Those are something called polymetallic nodules, little lumps of minerals that lie on the seabed at the bottom of the Pacific. Harvesting them — not even mining them, he says — would be easy with the right equipment, and wouldn’t harm the sea floor on which they rest.

Nonsense, say the scientists. One of them, a Chilean marine geologist named Sandor Muslow, even resigns from the UN-sanctioned governing body of the sea floor, the International Seabed Authority, because of what Muslow sees as a lack of transparency and conflicts of interest. The footage of the ISA’s meetings in Kingston, Jamaica, will look depressingly familiar to anyone who’s encountered such global bodies as the International Olympic Committee or FIFA. 

As Rytz shows this dispute on land, as Barron seeks investors for his mining-not-mining business and Muslow tries to convince people of the folly of the enterprise, the movie gives us breathtaking views of creatures that live in the dark depths of the ocean. The movie also provides a voice in their defense: The narrator, Jason Momoa, Aquaman himself, intoning with deep seriousness about the life far below. (At least he never refers to his “finny friends,” as the narrator on “Super Friends” used to do.)

It pays to stick with “Deep Rising” past the first few minutes. Rytz’s introduction of Barron might make a view think the movie was trying to sell them on DeepGreen’s plans. After the initial footage of Barron in a room with possible investors, the true contours of the movie’s argument becomes clear: When an industrialist tells you he can extract metals from anywhere without environmental consequences, don’t believe him.

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‘Deep Rising’

★★★

Playing in the Premieres section of the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Screens again on Saturday, Jan. 21, at 6:45 p.m., Grand Theatre, Salt Lake City; Wednesday, Jan. 25, at 6 p.m., Screening Room, Sundance Mountain Resort; Thursday, Jan. 26, at 6 p.m., Redstone Cinemas, Park City; and Saturday, Jan. 28, at 11:30 a.m., Holiday Village Cinemas, Park City. Not rated, but probably PG-13 for some language. Running time: 93 minutes.