We just gave a copy of this away not too long ago, and now, Warner Brothers has sent me a copy of the BBC / Discovery Channel supermassive performance of Life, a huge and sweeping biological epic that shows you, firsthand, the sheer array of spectacular things on this planet.

Life is about exactly that, life.  Specifically, animal life on Earth–everything from birds to mammals to fish and insects.  For those of you wondering, why not people, stick around; they’ll be bringing us Human Planet later and hopefully I’ll get a copy of that in when it finally shows up.  But this is all about animal life in all its numerous forms and colors and movements, in deep and startlingly brilliant high definition.

Folks, this is the kind of thing that huge home theater systems were made for–big, bold, beautiful, brilliant imagery on a thoroughly epic scale right in your very own home.  Amazing sights like butterfly swarms or lizards that run on water (they’re called Jesus Christ lizards, and I’m absolutely not making this up) abound in this presentation.

Even better is the narration.  Normally, I’m not fond of Oprah Winfrey, but here, her voice serves as an excellent explanation and occasional counterpoint to the images in screen.  And the background score is also extremely well done.  A further plus comes in if you don’t like Oprah but still want to see the movie–an option is offered where you can watch the movie without Oprah’s narration, simply watching the movie with the soundtrack.  This is an equally exciting experience.

It’ll be downright difficult to get bored watching Life, and that’s a good thing, because Life weighs in at a massive four hundred eighty four minutes (right around eight hours), and that’s a long time to sit watching any nature program.  This is why Life was originally split into several nights during its original airing, and why you’ll want to do the same should you watch this.

And frankly, you should watch this.  Life is a deep, sweeping, beautiful presentation that dazzles at every inch and makes us glad for big screen television.

The Screenhead Ten Scale thus gives Life a spectacular eight out of ten for presenting an incredible and exciting presentation that, despite its huge runtime, doesn’t get boring.  And that’s a feat in and of itself.