National Geographic: Journey to the Edge of the Universe (2008)

This was more drama and Fear based Programming (Propaganda) than it was a documentary of Science. You may like it, depending on your previous conditioning.

Journey to the Edge of the Universe (2008) Written by Nigel Henbest and Billie Pink, Directed by Yavar Abbas and narrated by Alec Baldwin. Well, that was two hours wasted,Spoiler ahead, although it is hard to imagine that anything could "spoil" this documentary any further. Inane commentary tries to create awe and a sense of adventure, and fails miserably. How many, "She is beautiful to look at, but is a monster" can we take? There are far too many here.Journey to the Edge of the Universe indeed. Guess what folks, there is no edge of the Universe. I was never a believer in the Big Bang theory either, now there seem to be others who opt for an alternative. There were some breathtaking images courtesy of Hubble, but nothing one hasn't seen before if you have been anywhere near a computer. Hard to picture the target audience for this one; Nine to twelve year old astronomy buffs perhaps, but they would get bored with it too. Two stars out of Ten for the computer animation.

I love documentaries. They are a great way to learn because a picture is like a thousand words. Now with advancements in computer animation things can be presented that no one could possibly videotape. For astronomy, it's a great benefit as lots of things are just photos or theories. Lately, a few National Geographic/BBC type astronomy documentaries have come out that are full of visual effects. This one stands out as clearly overdone. It looks like a trailer of space photos and animations designed to dazzle more than teach. But the most annoying thing about this film is the narrator's voice. Sean Pertwee sounds like he's inserting "Oh, my God!" between every other word. I'm not saying he should sound like a robot, but he's clearly over-excited, anticipating where he should just be narrating in a normal tone. Come to think of it, practically all mystery/horror movie trailers use this tone of voice.

The concept is superb! This documentary had so much potential but in my humble opinion, it's marred by gooey graphics (too much, repeated and they loved their asteroids), the script missing in details/facts. For example Calling another star system doesn't sit well with me. Having an asteroid falling down a black hole (Into the event horizon..) is probably wrong. Unless the black hole is really hugeAn animation showing Io being flexed by Jupiter's gravity would have been niceHaving a warp meter at the bottom of the screen would have been fantastic, adding a small projection of the path being traveled over the solar system/galaxy would have been nice.About the voyager "If you are in the jungle, is it wise to call out..", is plain wrong. A civilization finding the voyager will probably have located us using the radio spectrum. After the 70th minute, i stopped watching. I would have loved it my teens..