So you liked the CG insects in Antz and A Bug's Life? Time to meet the real thing - magnified to 250,000 times their normal size. Not only that, they're crawling at you in 3D. Creepy.
IMAX films inevitably put spectacle before story, but the real marvel of Mike Slee's bug-eyed doc is how much he makes us care for his shuffling characters. You might not think there's a lot of drama in the life cycles of a caterpillar or a praying mantis, but their struggles to eat, procreate and survive in Borneo's rainforest (shot on location, then painstakingly recreated on a British soundstage) take on an almost mythical dimension in this format.
There are misjudged moments, such as the camera coyly retreating behind a leaf as two mantids get it on, and Judi Dench's voiceover is surprisingly lacklustre. But, like Microcosmos, Bugs! offers an irresistible invitation into the alien world around and under us. Just be sure to bring a vat of Raid and a giant newspaper.
