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DVD Space Station (IMAX)
The partnership with NASA and IMAX films continues with a tour of the next step in space exploration: the International Space Station (ISS). Sixteen countries helped build this giant station (still being built upon the film's release in 2004). We see the first building blocks being constructed, including shots from inside the slick NASA shuttle launches to the friendly informalities of the Russian program. The crystal-clear pictures of the station and the Earth are the best aspects of this film. The entertaining footage delivers human elements, but sometimes the carefulness of experimentation makes for boring photography; a test of a super-cool jet pack has the astronaut moving mere inches. To the film's benefit, the narrator is Tom Cruise with a script tailored to his strong suits (the first line of "What an incredible sight!" is vintage Cruise). The film is also so light on its feet with a nice dose of music, including "Up on the Roof" and the Talking Heads "Naive Melody," that it makes up for the staginess of some of the scenes. The film was shown in 3-D in theaters but only 2-D for home video. --Doug Thomas
"Space Station", IMAX's latest space video, is Tom Hanks loving tribute to the ISS now in orbit. Don't look here for controversy about the program, or to a debate about whether it should have been built in the first place. Instead, it is a visually spectacular tribute both to the astronauts (who did much of the filming) and to the multi-billion dollar, multi-national project itself. There is nothing in here that would upset the NASA PR machine.
Having said this, it is a film to sit back and enjoy the awesome footage taken both from the inside and from the outside of the station. The visual quality of the film looks good even on a small television and must have been awesome on the big IMAX screens. One especially memorable scene was when they placed a camera (too) close to the Russian Proton rocket that launched the first station component. The flame, roar and flying debris (some of which nearly destroyed the $40,000 IMAX camera) attest to the power of that large rocket. Interior shots of the station show the large amount of internal space, far more than the little small spacecraft that we sent into orbit and on the moon, and the sheer joy of floating around weightless.
A good supplemental film described how they made the film, including interviews with a former NASA astronaut who participated in the filming.
Overall, though it is more a NASA-sponsored PR piece than a penetrating look at the station program, the visual spectacle make it a must buy for any space fan
Space Station Imax
Next to being on the International Space Station in person, with this DVD you can get down and personal with the crew. The view of the Earth is spectacular and the shots of the interior boggles the mind.
IMAX spacestation
This is a decent IMAX, not real exciting but good...my 6 year old son and I enjoyed it together...a bit "scientific" for little kids...
The following is from my Xanga site AeroGo, which gives helpful info to students and others interested in going into the aerospace field:
I don't try too hard to turn my kids into space cadets, but when this film came out I took all but the youngest to go see it, way down at Moody Gardens in Galveston.
For those familiar with Gerard O'Neill's concepts for space colonies, much of it will be familiar, but the film is well-scripted and the graphics are great, especially in 3D if you can find it. Apparently a lot of the graphics were from veteran space artist Pat Rawlings, and quite good, but my favorite is a scene of Saturn and rings, from its moon Enceladus, created by Fujitsu. I wonder if there's a poster of that somewhere.
That's because IMAX theaters are that same 4:3 format. To get widescreen you'd have to either lose picture on the top and bottom, or stretch the screen out over two blocks. More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 02 October 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Out of about 45 minutes total, maybe 15 minutes are in space. Of this some is space station Mir, some is looking at Earth, and only maybe 7 minutes is actually "inside the space station". Most of the Video is things like survival training in Alaska, people designing robots for space, or computer simulations of what the space station is planned to look like. So it is mostly not what I was expecting/hoping for. But the short time that was in space was very good. More Info about this DVD Director(s): Pierre de Lespinois DVD Release Date: Released the 21 May 2002 Usually ships within 24 hours
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While setting a milestone in the progress of digital filmmaking, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow resurrects a nostalgic fantasy world derived from a wide variety of vintage inspirations. It's a dazzling dream for anyone who appreciates the look and feel of golden-age sci-fi pulp magazines, drawing its unique, all-digital design from such diverse sources as Howard Hawks adventures, Fritz Lang's Metropolis, Buck Rogers, Blackhawk comics, The Third Man, cliffhanger serials, and the action-packed Indiana Jones franchise. Writer-director Kerry Conran's feature debut is also guaranteed to inspire digital dreamers everywhere, suggesting a paradigm shift in the way CGI-dominated movies are made. It's a giddy adventure for the young and young-at-heart, in... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Gwyneth Paltrow - Jude Law - Angelina Jolie Director(s): Kerry Conran DVD Release Date: Released the 25 January 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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