Hubble 3D: IMAX (2010)

Hubble 3D is now showing at the IMAX theater of the Museum of Natural Science in Houston, home of the Johnson Space Center (location of NASA's humongous zero-gravity training pool, which is featured for about 5 minutes of the film). Perhaps two-thirds of this movie is about the third Hubble repair mission astronauts' training and in-space repair work. This is all well and good esp. for fans of space exploration and those who appreciate the phenomenal contributions the Hubble space telescope has made towards our understanding of the universe and its origins. However, much of the repair footage is grainy and contrasty. The best material from the mission itself comes in the astronauts' own words when they say something spontaneous, intuitive, and funny about what it's like to live and work in space. (Don't miss the depiction of zero-g tortilla construction.) So come to see the astronauts but stay and go "Wo-o-ow!" for the astrophysics. The words "out of this world" apply to this film more than any other because Hubble 3D shows not only star and nebula formations that are billions of miles away but we cruise through the gaseous wombs where stars are being born, then through oceans of galaxies and even to the boundaries of the visible universe some 10 billion light years distant. Hubble 3D's photography is more than stellar -- it is unparalleled and even (some would say) spiritual. It is Anselm Adams in space. Don't just remember Carl Sagan's "billions and billions of stars" -- come see them. Hubble 3D's photography is awesome and "far out" -- for real. 4.5 stars.