The Black Hole (1979)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Blistering performances.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

The movie only really picks up in the second half, when it is highly exciting. The almost non existent acting, except for Schell is compensated for by the splendid visuals and set design. The robots are the best thing in the film. But the lasst ten minutes when it tries to do a 2001 is a big disappointment. So if you like space movies, you might like this.

Plot; The crew of a deep space craft come across a ship long thought to be missing that is somehow sitting at the edge of a black hole.For all of its lack of scientific credibility, there's perhaps nothing in The Black Hole more implausible than the idea of Ernest Borgnine being able to meet the fitness requirements for space travel. That said, there's actually a lot to like about this surprisingly quirky sci-fi tale from Disney.More of a junior 2001 than Star Wars, The Black Hole features some rather impressive special effects work that are in service of a story much darker than you'd expect from Disney at the time. In fact, it was the first PG rated film to carry the Disney name, and it certainly earns that rating. Familiar faces (and voices) dot the cast, but the standout is Maximilian Schell as the proverbial mad scientist Hans Reinhardt. Schell completely inhabits the character and gives whole affair some gravitas. Dark Disney

The Black Hole is a film that actually has a relatively good and interesting premise and it's a shame really that this 'good' premise is very rarely taken advantage of. The idea of an eccentric, disillusioned lonely megalomaniac effectively turning his own crew into humanoid robots who obey his every command coupled with the idea of said lunatic then trapping the innocent crew members of a research ship on board his vessel has all the hallmarks of a film that could have been both insightful and thrilling, but as mentioned it rarely achieves these basic objectives...For a start, the narrative is a little threadbare and doesn't reveal much about what had happened on board Reinhardt's ship? What sent him mad? How did he create his army of robots? How did he survive there for 20 years? These are just a few things I could think of 'off the cuff', but I'm sure there are more weaknesses in the writing.Another failure with this film is in its complete failure to make the main antagonist interesting; Maximilian Schell's performance has all the trappings of a Bond villain (I couldn't help shake off the notion that I was basically watching Hugo Drax from Moonraker), but he's given no real depth meaning I ultimately didn't end up caring for him or his deluded cause. I also didn't find him a particularly menacing villain - although to his credit Schell is still the best thing about this film by a mile.The idea of a man going insane and turning his own crew into a humanoid robot crew is quite unique and interesting, but as mentioned the filmmakers only really scratch the surface here and never really develop this aspect of the story - the main focus of the story seemed to be about Reinhardt trying to enter The Black Hole which just never really held my interest to be honest.More notable problems lie with the utterly horrendous visuals; I was honestly gobsmacked how awful the whole thing looked - the whole thing looked like it was made on a budget of 75p. In fairness the poor visuals are complemented well by generally poor performances from everyone (I was especially surprised by Borgnine who is usually excellent). The robot helper Vincent (or Dusty Bin as I prefer to call him) was presumably intended as 'comic relief' but he really isn't that funny and when he meets his 'mate' on Reinhardt's ship their whole shtick can be likened to the lamest double act you're ever likely to see.The fact that this film has an intriguing premise, a creepy isolated setting and the potential for some interesting humanoid/robot insights AND yet still manages to be boring, uninteresting and not exactly enlightening is rather shocking in all honesty. With seemingly so much working for it this could and should have been so much better.

With The Black Hole, I'd say you either love it or you hate it. And of course, many sci-fi fans despise this movie. I'll say this - The Black Hole is extremely unique, and severely overlooked. It has an excellent score, beautiful backgrounds, and an intriguing story with a cheesy (but lovable) cast. It is dark at times, but exciting and action-packed as a science fiction movie should be. The ambiguous ending is the only thing I do not like about this movie, given its abruptness and out-of-place feel. I'll say it again, though - the ending does not define the movie, and it remains a very entertaining, well-done, truly Disney classic.