Hubble 3D As Gripping as Plumbers Snaking a Drain

A A A Comments (6) By Aaron Hillis Tuesday, Mar 16 2010

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Hubble 3D
Directed by Toni Myers
Warner Bros.
Opens March 19

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Nasa's famous space telescope was carried by shuttle into Earth's orbit 20 years ago next month, and within weeks of that launch, it was discovered that this huge and hugely expensive bastard had a flawed optical system—Hubble was a real lemon. Still, it took some amazing pictures. If there's one thing that Space Station 3D producer/director Toni Myers's new Imax doc achieves, it's making audiences feel like insignificant specks in the universe, as when "zooming in" to the tiny, newly forming galaxies hiding in the gaseous clouds of each star in Orion's Belt. More futility may be found in the film's primary agenda, a first-person snapshot of 2009's final rescue mission, in which seven astronauts risked their necks to manually fix the telescope yet again, making it the most dangerous job in tech-support history. Even at 43 minutes short, with earnest but marketable narration by Leonardo DiCaprio and one amusing zero-gravity taco preparation scene, Hubble 3D's perilous endeavors are about as thrilling to watch as plumbers snaking a drain . . . in spacesuits! If you want an eye-popping cosmic epic, rent Star Trek. If you want interactivity, take the kids to the planetarium.

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Camelotsunrise 03/28/2011 2:45:00 PM

That you compare a fictional movie with computer generated images to actual footage of our vast universe, shows what a moron you are. How about you stick to reviewing sci-fi and leave documentary reviews for the grown ups?
Greg 09/07/2010 4:12:00 AM

I feel bad for you, just because you can't rap you're head around it doesn't mean it was bad. It was a great movie, it was emersive and awe-striking. This movie I think everyone should see because that telescope has discovered great things for humanity and so just because you personally don't like the feeling of awe and humbleness doesn't mean anything. It is a great movie go see it, this critic just doesn't know what he saw. Shame on you.
Harold 09/05/2010 1:31:00 PM

"newly forming galaxies hiding in the gaseous clouds of each star in Orion's Belt" What does that mean, exactly? There are no *galaxies* forming in gaseous clouds, the clouds focused on were probably of Orion's Nebula (which is below the belt), and I'm not even sure what to make of the "of each star" part.
james 05/18/2010 9:52:00 AM

The author of this review is a fool. Why are you mentioning a famous movie series and a planetrium in a movie review and not what the movie is about? Get a clue...the author is jealous that he will never have the guts to go up into space to manually repair an enormous telescope worth $500 million, or ever have the intelligence needed to make a taco in zero gravity.
Roger 04/25/2010 2:35:00 PM

I completely agree with Bill with regards to the impact with which both NASA and Hubble have had on the human species. I have yet to see this movie but I am sure when I do, it will be quite the delight. Aaron, although Hubble in a few years will fall back to Earth and burn up in the upper atmosphere, it will forever be remembered as America's world wonder along with the Apollo moon landing. A thousand years from now do you really think that future civilizations will look back and give a damn about our military might, our mass communications, or our elected officials? No, they will remember what our nation was the first to do in history and that was landing on the moon and exploring deep space.
William 03/17/2010 6:22:00 AM

Hi Aaron, unfortunately I have to disagree with you. I was fascinated by the repair mission to Hubble and watched several hundred hours of it live on NASA TV. It is the dedication, perseverance, attitude, competence and professionalism of the astronauts and their support staff here on Earth that made the mission a success, a real-life success, not a Hollywood make believe story. I'm also a huge Star Trek fan and enjoyed the movie tremendously, but to reduce the achievements made by those seven brave men and women who risked their lives to fix a scientific instrument that could have just as easily been thrown out, by suggesting people not go and watch the IMax film and instead partake in some Hollywood fantasy is rather disappointing to say the least. I suppose this is why NASA's budget has been slashed, because unfortunately their missions, their 'real' scientific exploits can't compete with today's supposed reality TV. I wish the general public and specifically journalists would cover more of the space program, the real-life day-to-day struggle that is 'real' science. It isn't all glamor, pageantry and exciting, but it is what actual engineers, scientists and academics actually do. If we are able to communicate through the magic of the Internet and be able to Blog, Twitter, text and the other myriad of communications offered to us by today's technology, it is because we owe it all to the men and women who valiantly work in obscurity on this technology. So before you sit there and yawn at another IMax of the Hubble or the Space Station, take a good luck at what you see, look beyond the spacesuits and what has unfortunately become the humdrum of another space shuttle flying to orbit. This about the people that are making all this happen, the families that have had to make sacrifices and the years of study to make their dreams a reality. That is excitement, that is the drive to become better than we are and not merely sacs of mostly water, to coin a ST:TNG phrase, sitting in front of our TVs watching American Idol. Thank-you, Bill