Space Station 3D (2002)

Excellent but underrated film

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

This film is billed as the closest most of us will ever come to being in space. Given the IMAX 3D technology (which works near perfectly 80% of the time) you do come pretty close.The cinematography is brilliant and the 40 years experience of the IMAX film production really show - expect most of the filming is done by astronauts, which make it even more amazing. Filmed on location quite literally 'all over the world' (though identifiable parts are the Kennedy Space Center in the US, 'Star City' in the CIS and *somewhere* over West Africa), this is about an international film as you are going to get.There are many totally unique sequences in this film: the opening one is a very good computer simulation of a space-walk mishap in which an astronaut becomes unattached from the Space Station. Later on they do this for real to test the emergency back-pack unit.The sound is, as one would expect from IMAX, excellent. The sub-base adds amazing realism to the launch sequences and docking maneuvers - you can really feel the 'thumps.'The scenery, especially of earth is breath-taking and very well framed. Also, there are some more human moments: such as the watering of onions that spouted in storage, the birthday party (was it? Or a crew change-over?) and the 'other' scene of stowing provisions (I'll not spoil the humor on this one) that could have probably only been filmed in free-fall by people actually living there.This film exposes the contrast between the CIS & USA space programs: in the former, the equipment is chunky, reliable and functions at minus 20 C; in the later neat, tidy and delicate (the Shuttles seem to need a near perfect day to launch by comparison). Yet the two do indeed work very well together in orbit, as do the truly international crews: USA, Canadian, Russian, Italian and Japanese all work alongside each other on the missions and the filming. This 'one-ness' is stressed by both the editing and voice-overs given by the astronauts. It is perhaps un-surprising then that the odd environmental point is made about looking after the planet. As a film, this is short: under an hour. This is probably long enough: you can hold your breath only so many times before passing out. The minor detractor is Tom Cruise's narration: at times it is just a little too intense and grates after a while (though this is highly personal: I ignored it and looked at the pictures).This film is great publicity for NASA and goes someway to silencing the neigh-sayers of the ISS / space exploration projects.

I'm sort of a fan of wide-screen processes and visual spectacle. And, lately, I've been disappointed. Up until "Space Station 3D," the two most spectacular visual experiences I've had in my life were "This Is Cinerama" (in the early fifties) and "2001: A Space Odyssey" (on its first run, in New York.)I've seen "2001" several times since, hoping to capture the same thrill I did on its first run, but the visual spectacle was just not there in 35mm prints. Last year I saw a 70mm print of it at the Coolidge in Boston, and was very disappointed--I don't know what was wrong, but the focus was not good, and the deep, pitch-black, back-velvet sky I remembered in the original was washed out.I've seen many IMAX films, many of them quite good--"Everest" being one of the best--but there is usually too much material in it that is just blown-up 35mm. Oh, and I saw "Kiss Me, Kate" and "Miss Sadie Thompson" in lovingly restored 3D at a revival in Palo Alto, and while it was a blast, basically the 3D felt just as gimmicky as you'd expect.OK. Space Station 3D is sharp, clear, all IMAX. The three-dimensional effect is totally convincing and natural. Like "2001," you can look AROUND at the things YOU are interested in instead of what the camera happens to be pointed at. I've never before had such a compelling sensation of "actually being there." Oddly enough, some of the most intense moments for me was not the scenes in space, but the scenes where astronauts and cosmonauts are simply walking around the Baikonur complex. This film recaptured for me the sense of "being in space" that I had the first time I saw "2001."This is just one sensational film and is well worth going out of your way to see. It delivers fully on the IMAX promise in every way. (And I suggest that everyone make a point of seeing real IMAX while we can, as I have an uncomfortable feeling that IMAX is in the process of sinking into the mire of enhanced 35mm blowups).I saw Cinerama in the early fifties, "2001" in the late sixties... I've had to wait over three decades to see something as spectacular. Go see it while you can. If 35 mm blowups and video "cinema" take over, it may be another three decades before we get anything like this again.

The only thing that I didn't like about this movie was threading it through the projector. IMAX 3D movies require two prints, one for the left eye, and one for the right eye. So it takes us projectionists twice as long to get it ready.But enough of that, the movie was very good for an IMAX 3D movie. The best parts are when the astronauts have a little fun while filming. For example (MAYBE A SPOILER!) : the astronauts are eating and some of the food is flying around and one of the astronauts takes an orange and pushes it towards the camera. Everytime I run that movie I watch the audience and I see them covering their eyes and trying to grab some of the objects floating around.The movie was made by the same people who made "The Dream Is Alive" over 15 years ago. It is truly an amazing experience!

"Space Station," an IMAX 3-D film is a first-rate vehicle heralding the success of Lockheed Martin, NASA and the space industries and astronauts and cosmonauts of many nations. I'm not particularly interested in space exploration - we have enough challenges on terra firma - but this short film is awesome. Especially in 3-D.I'd love to know how they maneuvered the notoriously bulky and complex IMAX cameras around the International Space Station. The film is at once intimate (isn't everything up there?) and yet broad in its grandeur.If someone had been waiting outside the theater as we emerged with petitions demanding more money for the space program I would have added my signature.This film is for everyone!