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Undeniably stunning scenery aside, the best thing about African Adventure 3D: Safari in the Okavango is that it might make you think twice about remortgaging the Yaletown condo for that dream adventure on the Dark Continent. Based on what we see, even professionally led safaris are a bit like police work: 95 percent monotony and five percent adrenaline-pumping action. For every majestic, literally in-your-face shot of a mud-caked elephant, there are long stretches of wildlife conservationist and filmmaker Tim Liversedge meandering though the Okavango Delta with zoologist Liesl Eichenberger, sometimes by land and sometimes by boat. As interesting as it may be to learn how one gets a jeep across a river in the middle of nowhere, it's not quite as mesmerizing as watching a lion rip the throat out of a zebra.

Directed by Ben Stassen, African Adventure 3D acts as a bookend to his 2005 outing Wild Safari 3D. This time, instead of running around South African nature reserves in search of the Big Five (Cape buffaloes, elephants, leopards, lions, and rhinos) that nature junkies pay big dollars to see, he focuses on the Okavango Delta in northwestern Botswana, where the Okavango River spills out into the Kalahari Desert. One of the true wonders of the planet, the region is so vast you can see it from outer space. And due to its size (20,000 square kilometres), it evidently takes a while to get around. Most of the film features close encounters of the vegetative kind, as we get tranquil stretches where the camera glides its way through the reeds of the Okavango River.

The message here is that safaris are all about the search. As in real life, the payoffs in the film range from the almost-disappointing (hippos spend their days submerged in water, meaning they are visible only from the eyes up) to the incredible (a pride of lions stalks a family of wart hogs with military-style precision). As an added bonus, African Adventure 3D serves as a mini-documentary about making wildlife documentaries, with Stassen frequently turning the camera on Liversedge to show how he gets the footage that's made him a legend among conservationists.

Ultimately, then, African Adventure 3D: Safari in the Okavango requires some patience, much like a real safari. And when we get to the film's money shot–an elephant seems to amble right off the screen, so close we can see every coarse hair on its trunk–remortgaging the condo for the adventure of a lifetime suddenly doesn't seem like such a bad idea.