Matt Damon Movie:

Editorial Review:
Tom Hanks continues his love affair with space that began with Apollo 13 and his miniseries From Earth to the Moon with this compelling IMAX adventure, Magnificent Desolation. Fans of space fact and fantasy will not want to miss this engaging docudrama, which combines actual footage of lunar walks and interviews of the few men who've trod there with dramatizations of scenarios both exciting and terrifying.

The true way to experience this film, of course, is in its IMAX splendor, but home-theater buffs won't be disappointed. The footage takes the "lunar visitor" along moon's craters and potholes, with nothing but the vastness of space all around. Unseen film shows close-ups of terrain as well as technical infrastructure that may well be models for future moon-living. One particularly scary scene thankfully has never happened on a moon mission, and involves the sudden loss of breathing apparatus. Scuba divers will recognize the "buddy system" of sharing a single air source--and viewers with any kind of claustrophobic issues may want to fast-forward. But overall, the thrills of space travel are made as real as possible for us mere mortals who will only experience it from our comfy chairs. Roger that.--A.T. Hurley

Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D Reviews:
Superficial, but maybe suitable for very young kids
2009-08-23 - I'm inclined to like anything that has to do with the space program, but I was very disappointed by this film. Technically it's well done, but it's basically just vapid propaganda that generates no sense of wonder or excitement, despite an attempt to pump up some synthetic suspense with a "what if something had gone wrong?" sequence. Maybe an eight-year-old would find this bit of fluff inspiring, but for anybody else, I recommend the truly superb "In the Shadow of the Moon," or the equally good "Apollo 13," or the "From the Earth to the Moon" HBO series.

Lightweight
2009-07-22 - I wouldn't even show this to kids. It's obvious that a lot of work went into it, but the results are insipid.

Watch "In the shadow of the moon" instead.

what if? (rhetorical question about Tom Hanks)
2009-07-20 - What would happen if Tom Hanks refused to do another NASA film? Would he mysteriously disappear, or maybe die in a mysterious car accident?
At this point in his career and life, I think it is safe to assume that Tom Hanks is REQUIRED to help NASA perpetuate the Moon landing hoax. There is really no other explanation for why Tom Hanks continues to be involved in making movies about the moon landing hoax year in and year out. He can't possibly believe that men have walked on the Moon.

I would imagine that there is blackmail involved. "NASA" probably has compromising photos of Tom Hanks.

Anyway, I haven't seen this film, but I doubt if it's any good.
Since I haven't seen the film, I feel that a three star rating is fair, and probably better than it deserves.

Reaching the Moon and Functioning on its Surface
2009-06-21 - This production makes it obvious how the lunar landings of 35-40 years ago have been largely forgotten. Schoolchildren asked about them know very little.

Six pairs of Americans trod the lunar surface. The challenges of moving about the moon's surface include a lack of perspective. Owing to the lack of perspective-giving familiar objects (e. g., trees); it is difficult to judge sizes and distances. (Also, the lack of atmosphere and the haze it imposes on distant objects makes distant objects on the lunar surface seem much closer than they really are).

Perhaps the most valuable feature of this documentary is the recording of the voices of different astronauts (not only Neil Armstrong and his famous "Small Step for Man" statement) as they walked on the moon. There is also a little satire of those who deny the fact of the lunar landings.

One unique feature of this documentary is the procedure for dealing with an emergency on the surface of the moon--which fortunately never happened. The astronauts' rover crashes, and both it and its communication system are disabled. The astronauts switch to a backup radio system, connect the oxygen hoses to each other, and hike back to the lunar module with only a few minutes' oxygen to spare.


Not at all what we expected.
2009-06-17 - Bought this for my husband, he had heard about it years ago in IMAX but never got to go see it. We were both pretty excited to see it but that changed after 10 min into the movie.. Most of it isn't any new footage, a lot of children were interviewed throughout the ENTIRE movie, asking them questions about what it means to them to be an astronaut, or what they think it's like on the moon, etc.. It wasn't at all what we expected. Not worth the money, buy something else..