Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D (2005)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Mark Cowen

Writers (WGA):

Tom Hanks (written by) and
Mark Cowen (written by) ...

Release Date:

23 September 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Animation | Short

Tagline:

Only 12 Have Walked On The moon. This Fall, You're Next!

Plot Keywords:

3 Dimensional | Space | IMAX | Apollo 1 | Moon

Awards:

1 win

US Showtimes:

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Cast

Tom Hanks	...	Narrator (voice)
John Corbett	...	Jack Schmitt (voice)
Andrew Husmann	...	Astronaut Scott
Bryan Cranston	...	Buzz Aldrin (voice)
Aaron White	...	Astronaut Irwin
Matt Damon	...	Al Shepard (voice)
Gary Hershberger	...	Astronaut Grace
Morgan Freeman	...	Neil Armstrong (voice)
Scott Wilder	...	Astronaut Wallace
Brandy Blackledge	...	Future Astronaut
Scott Glenn	...	Charles Duke (voice)
Rick Gomez	...	Alpha Station Commander (voice)
Colin Hanks	...	Conspiracy Neil Armstrong
Bo Stevenson	...	Conspiracy Grip
Frank John Hughes	...	Future Houston Capcom (voice)

Also Known As:

Magnificent Desolation (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

USA:40 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.44 : 1

Sound Mix:

Sonics-DDP

Certification:

USA:Unrated | Australia:G | Malaysia:U

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

IMAX

Goofs:

Factual errors: In the emergency scenario the spacesuit connectors for cooling water and oxygen from the PLSS (Portable Life Support System) are reversed and the BSLSS (Buddy Secondary Life Support System) hose is incorrectly connected between the suit oxygen inlets. The BSLSS shared only the cooling water from a single working PLSS, not oxygen. This allowed the astronaut with the failed PLSS to extend his emergency oxygen supply.

Movie Connections:

References Muppets from Space (1999)

A mild disappointment

I went to see DESOLATION this afternoon with the hope of it delivering on the hype: namely, a virtual walk on the moon.

Well...it does deliver that...but in frustrating snippets.

After all, with only 40 min of film time (for $10.50), I was really hoping for an immersion experience, start to finish. Instead...the actual scenes devoted to 3-D moonscape are rarely longer than 10 seconds each, interspersed with 10 MINUTES of inane filler material...like cute school kids trying to remember the names of the Apollo astronauts. Sheesh...very much 'spell breaking'.

So...you do come away with a few shots to remember. But a virtual 'experience' of being on the surface of the moon?? Not really. More like an MTV experience of being on the moon, for the attention span challenged.

Josh