I saw "L5" - the IMAX movie, (which my girlfriend called "L7" as in "squaresville.") Well it did stink, but I love space movies and usually find something redeeming.

It wasn't as bad as "Moon Zero Two" or Disney's "The Black Hole" or "Event Horizon" to name three of many clunkers, but if it wasn't for IMAX 3-D....(yawn...snore....snore....snore...)

My favorite parts:
The landing and deployment of a spider-like probe on Titan. (About a 15 second sequence.)

The big space colonies with their enclosed counter-rotating wheels (one inside the other - what a great idea!)

Catching comets to harvest their water ice. (Hopefully filtering poisons out.)

But believe me, the movie is something of an endurance test, with dull lifeless narration throughout. The interior of "L5" looks like a brightly colored, all plastic lounge from 1965. Everything is seen from a kid's point of view. That's OK, but I think kids would want a lot of popcorn to get through this one. Some of the visuals are more cartoon-like which is also OK except they're placed with non-cartoon scenes. A little jarring, though the 3-D effect smoothes it over - sometimes.
Biggest criticism - could have been more intellectually stimulating (for kids too) than it was. As a movie, it leaves one wondering why they bothered to build big space colonies. It never really addresses the reason. (I'm all for space exploration, but this movie really gives no reason why thousands of people live in space elsewhere in our solar system.)

(There seem to be "L5" societies around, but they are interested in space colonization, not just fan clubs for the movie.)

Here's the movie website:
http://www.imax.com/films/distribution/L5.html


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Chip on 2001-11-30 12:41 ]</font>

I dunno, I thought 'The Black Hole' quite entertaining & wouldnt of lumped it with the others you mentioned, but then i'm not judging it on its BA [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

__________________
N6MAA10816
Faber '62 ΔTX
Are you a Bright?

Well, I have seen it on a visit to KSC. BA or no BA, it was pretty slow and trite. It seemed like they were trying to make people think, "Wow, we will live like that someday." See "The Dream is Alive". Unfortunately, I missed the Mir movie, so I can't comment on that one.

By the way, the Saturn V center at KSC is worth the price of admission by itself just to walk under the Saturn V.

Rob

Gee, thanks for insulting my living room.

;^)

Sorry, but I'm just trying to come to grips with the fact that George Harrison is no longer with us. I'm seeing the 60's through the mist in my eyes...

"Give me peace on Earth ..."

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: The Rat on 2001-11-30 23:08 ]</font>

Ah, lucky you people.

The movies that play in IMAX theatres here are an exercise in tediousness, testing your every limit, such as how much lion reproduction can you sustain without going insane.

You can sustain alot, but believe me, eventually you do end up going insane. Take my word for it! [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Can't help but feel sorry for a person that would be in that projection chamber.

Who says they pay attention to what's on the screen? }:-)

__________________
"You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep seated need to believe." [Carl Sagan]

But how can you ignore the sound! THE SOUND! Argh! It's painful!

You ever heard of earplugs?

__________________
"You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep seated need to believe." [Carl Sagan]

No.

Besides no earplug can block out that kind of sound!

Mr X said:Wanna bet? There are throwaway foam earplugs and then there are $100 a pop and up, custom fitted hearing protectors. See here:
http://www.hearnet.com/index.shtml

__________________
Any day you wake up on "the right side of the dirt" is a good day.

T. Anderson

And I think there are headphones (if not earplugs) that actively counteract outside noise, not just muffle it.

Yup. They use a microphone, lots of DSP (digital signal processing), an amp and speakers to produce an out of polarity analog of the ambient sound field. They work best against sound with some temporal structure (i.e. tonal quality) like car exhaust noise. they are less successful against "pure" unstructured noise.

_________________
TANSTAAFL!

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Kaptain K on 2001-12-03 11:25 ]</font>