Roving Mars (2006)

I was disappointed. With all the pictures sent back by the rovers even before the movie had to cut and run, the film devotes only a couple of minutes to these. The landing doesn't even occur until the halfway point (20 minutes), and the first pictures from the rovers at 26 minutes. Meanwhile, more of the limited (40 minutes) time is devoted to talking heads than to anything else. There are CGI fly-overs of Mars when there could have been actual photos.The interviews, CGI flyovers, and simulations of the rovers are very good stuff -- accurate and informative -- and would have been excellent in a 2- or 3-hour film. The problem is the emphasis, which needed to be "what we saw on Mars". Forty minutes didn't give time for all the rest. This is the rare documentary which would have been much better expanded. Keep all the good stuff, add even more about the difficulties of getting to Mars (there's brief mentions of past failures, and these are fascinating stories of their own), and add a lot more about the scientific goals and successes, and a great deal more photographs sent back from the rovers, and a lot more explanations of what is seen in these photos. It's as though the makers assumed viewers were only interested in the people behind the mission, and not the mission itself.Then there's the emphasis on water, life, and preparation for manned visits. This does not accurately represent the mission. While water and life detection was part of it, the mission was a lot more. And the idea of manned visits to Mars is a pipe dream, driven by emotions and politics, not science. The film makers would have served us better by emphasizing the excitement in the exploration by proxy, rather than viewing it as merely a preparation for manned flight.The film does prove, once again, that Philip Glass can write astoundingly good film music.There's a huge need to convey the enormous excitement in the actual unmanned missions, to Mars and to the other planets. This documentary chose instead to keep the blinders on, emphasizing what's believed to be already exciting to humans.Note that I only saw this on a home screen, not IMAX. I'm sure some parts would have been much more impressive on IMAX. But that's all the more reason to upend the emphases. Who wants to go into an IMAX theater, for only 40 minutes, and watch talking heads?

I saw this at an Imax in LA last week - I'm still in awe. Maybe the previous commenter was a rocket scientist himself, but for me, the hurdles these people had to accomplish in the time they did, and the unbelievable success they had is something that made me proud to be an American when I left the theater. The visual aspects of the film left me holding my breath at times. And the story - it was the same story we've all seen 100 times - a small group of people working together to achieve the impossible. Only this time, the story is true, the people are real and the goal is the advancement of humanity. Something we can all be proud of in a time when there are not that many things that we should be proud of. Take everyone you can drag with you - there isn't anyone who won't be moved by the vistas of a distant planet sent here by a couple tiny robots built by a small group of men and women from the planet Earth who had a dream. Why a 9 instead of a 10? It ended too soon.

Short documentary, and just good enough to keep the attention of young viewers... great action sequences and as mentioned, the animation from live footage is nearly indistinguishable... the NASA experience shared here both in actual footage and staff interviews makes for great enjoyment for any space buff... well worth seeing as an IMAX candidate! I suppose the only drawback is no green men or any Hollywood fantasies here, you have to actually use your mind to imagine the possibilities of what's out there, given the tidbits of evidence about water and rock material collected from the mission... should be enough for any mortal man, but don't go in expecting to see Tom Cruise battle any aliens. :)

I was fortunate enough to see the first public premier of this IMAX movie given to Lockheed-Martin Employees. The public reception was warm but not overwhelming. The images of Mars and the Rocket Launch were magnificent and the animated segments were indistinguishable from the filmed segments, very accurately using the photographs sent by the Rovers to create the landscapes. One note about a sequence that made many in the theater groan - THERE IS NO SOUND IN SPACE!!!!! Much of the movie consisted of often young enthusiastic engineers telling us how impossible the task was and (indirectly) how brilliant they must be. I do not belittle the accomplishment, it is awesome to be sure, but this standard Mantra we get with every film depicting a technological accomplishment is getting repetitious. On the other hand, I understand the wall NASA is up against every day to get and keep funding for these very important programs, so any salesmanship is forgiven. It is also, I suppose, important for the general layman to understand why these programs are so difficult to pull off so they can truly appreciate the success. I was impressed by the humor and humbleness that the engineers displayed in the face of test failures. This is an interesting, and at times, visually striking documentary, definitely worth seeing. Take the kids, they'll be wide eyed as the public gets its first truly satisfying look at the red planet.