Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Only 12 people have walked the moon, and that was over 30 years ago. The is short movie brings back to life the memory of the astronaut's jorney and allow the viewer to experience the next best thing to walking on the moon.

We went with our family to see Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D in the IMAX theater over Thanksgiving break. The movie was released September 2005 and will likely be playing at the NASA and science centers for awhile. We chose this movie because we were hoping it would be like other Imax moives we watched in the past like Imax Space Station.

The IMAX Experience
This movie was created for (not a remake like some movies are) and is presented best in Imax quality so my opinion is see it at the Imax instead of waiting for it come out on DVD. I don’t know how other IMAX theaters work, but for us the ticket prices were half that of a standard IMAX movie since it’s a short 40 minute movie which made this well worth the trip.

It may be really hard to find a 3-D IMAX theater. You may only find one IMAX in an entire state and of the ones that exist; only half of them are a 3-D stadium. We were given 3-D glasses to use as we entered the theater. The movie is in 3-D and the glasses must be worn otherwise the screen will be blurry.

IMAX theaters are significantly different than traditional movie theaters. The visual and audio is extremely high tech and totally breathtaking. The screen we saw the movie on was 8 stories high and half the size of a football field. The film that is used for IMAX films is 10 times larger than regular film.

About the movie
This is an educational movie which gives a lot of information about the moon. In the beginning a few children are interviewed to get their opinion on if they want to visit the moon and which gets the audience thinking about their opinion on space walk. We see a few things like the lunar rover (but not in detail) and an overview of the astronaut’s space suit, insight on astronaut training, earthlings limitations on exploring the moon, and so forth.

This is set up like a documentary. This was based on the history that the first moon walk was in 1969 and several more with the last trip in 1972. There were a total of 12 astronauts that walked on the moon. The movie is supposed to be based off of “The Lunar Surface Journals” recounted by the astronauts.

The movie skips most of the details around getting to the moon and jumps right in to the first steps of the astronauts on the moon. With terrific 3-D and state-of-the-art filming the viewer may feel like they are out of this world.

There were clips from actual moon walks mixed with recreations so it’s hard to say what was real and what was not. We heard the voices of each of the 12 astronauts which I presume was actual footage. The astronauts were describing their thoughts as they made their first step on the moon. The sound quality of the astronauts of course is a little difficult to hear since it was years ago and they were speaking through a space suit. I couldn’t really make out what each of them said, but I got the impression that it was amazing.

Some drawbacks
Unfortunately, we do not see the space ship taking off from earth or any magnificent shots of space, earth or any of the time spent inside or outside of the shuttle getting from earth to the moon. Since the filmmakers were limited to Apollo footage several decades ago the footage of the moon had to be recreated here on earth.

I’m still not sure if I’d call this a documentary because to me it seemed like they were trying to retell the story of previous moon walks but then added filler to develop a storyline and added a hypothetical dangerous situation for the astronauts that could have occurred while on the moon. The hypothetical situation actually showed the best view of the moon but it was fictitious and not actually what happened on the space walks. So this is a mixture of fiction and nonfiction so you’re not going to see genuine history in the making.

Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks was the narrator for this movie. This was more like a documentary so you won’t find him acting in the movie like he traditionally does but you will hear his voice describing the scenes throughout the movie. He also was involved in writing and producing the movie.

Children
This was set up nicely to entertain young viewers and interesting enough for adults too. The movie was only 40 minutes long so it was short enough that all the kids were able to sit though the movie without getting antsy.

There were a lot of young children in the theater while we were there and they all seemed to enjoy it. The 3-D experience was very entertaining for them. All the kids in the theater were wowing the visuals and reaching out to grab things floating on the screen. It was a very enjoyable movie which incorporated educational information.

One thing that our family discussed after the movie was gravitation. Either they didn’t discuss it or all of us missed it. There were some key questions that the kids had about the moon that either was not address or they missed due to the speed of the movie. It seems to me it would have been more helpful to give some more facts or a more detailed overview about the moon to help kids understand a lot of the typical “why” questions and to refresh the memory of the adults who may have forgotten the facts as well especially since one of their main objectives was to educate the younger crowds.

Overall
There were 10 of us in our group from 3-years-old to 64-years-old and we unanimously thought the movie was pretty good and worth the time to see. I did enjoy the movie but I do think the movie would have been better if it were filmed on the moon and stuck to a clear non-fiction storyline with more historic or scientific details.

The end of the movie was a little slow. I drifted off to sleep and sadly I wasn’t the only one. Perhaps it was the Thanksgiving turkey which made us tired, I don’t know. I thought for the entertainment aspect, it was more like a three star movie. For actual factual documentation, still a three star movie. The IMAX portion however was 5 stars and remarkable and really adds tremendously to movie. The whole moonwalk story is amazing in itself.

The visuals were the best part of the moving. With the 3D effects and IMAX technology it looks just like you’re there. Don’t wait for the DVD.



Recommended: Yes

Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12