The Search for Life in Space (2016)

For some reason, I always fall into the same trap.  I know that most space documentaries will offer little new information, yet I watch them.  The Search for Life in Space is just such a documentary.  As you might imagine, it deals with extraterrestrial beings and how we might find them.  Most of the documentary deals with possible planets and moons within our own solar system, but does mention the Kepler telescope and the extrasolar planets that it has helped to find.

From what I’ve read, the movie was made for IMAX and was originally shown in 3-D, which makes sense.  The movie isn’t too big on plot or giving out a lot of detail.  It mentions a few moons that might be suitable.  This seems to be mostly a way of showing some nice pictures.   I wish I had the chance to see it in 3-D.  I should warn you that the soundtrack does leave something to be desired.  It was good, but not great.

It’s the kind of thing I could see playing on loop at a science museum on a screen in the corner.  At just over 30 minutes, it’s also the kind of thing that a teacher could show to a science class.  It’s pretty generic and could be understood by pretty much anyone.

There were a few omissions. I don’t recall it mentioning the Drake Equation or the Fermi Paradox, both central to the topic.  I don’t also don’t remember the movie mentioning Europa, although I may simply have missed it.  Europa is a pretty good candidate for extraterrestrial life.  I don’t get the impression that this was meant to be informative.  It seems like it was meant to be pretty for the really big screen.  If you can get it streaming, go for it.  If not, I wouldn’t worry about getting it on DVD.

IMDb page

The Void (2001)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

I was looking around NetFlix one day and I came across The Void. I think I was looking for things with Amanda Tapping in it. (I happen to be a fan of the show, Stargate: SG-1, where she plays Lt. Col. Samantha Carter.) I noticed the movie also had Adrian Paul, of the Highlander TV series. I figured that it couldn’t hurt to rent something that they were both in. I may have to reconsider that assessment.

The movie is about Dr. Thomas Abernathy, played by Malcolm McDowell. He’s sort of the mad-scientist type. He wants to actually create a small black hole for the purposes of generating large amounts of clean energy. The trouble is that his math is bad. He’s tried once and failed, killing many people including Dr. Soderstrom. (Abernathy was watching from a remote site, and was thus spared a horrible death.)

Eight years later, Dr. Abernathy wants to try again. He thinks he has all of the problems worked out. Eva Soderstrom, played by Amanda Tapping, is trying to shut him down; she thinks that the math is still bad. (Eva is also the daughter of the Dr. Soderstrom that was killed in the accident eight years prior.)

She and Steven Price (played by Adrian Paul) are both professors at the same school. Price also has another job working for Abernathy. She uses him to access files and get proof of what’s going on. When confronted about it, Price doesn’t believe her and feels betrayed, but eventually comes around. The two of them realize that they have to save the world by stopping Abernathy.

The movie was hit and miss. It looks like the bulk of the money was spent on some good actors with the rest of the money going to special effects. I like Amanda Tapping, Adrian Paul and Malcolm McDowell. All three were great in this movie.

The special effects were only a little better than marginal. Most of it is pretty good, but there were some visual things that I picked up on that I felt took away from the movie. For instance, there’s a picture of Eva and her father that’s just of the two of them against a gray background. It looks like someone just edited two separate pictures together and put it in a frame.

The story was interesting, but could have used a little work. There were a few things that I saw coming. (Don’t worry; I won’t spoil it for you.) Also, why was Eva so certain of the Earth’s destruction? I find it odd that she saw only two possible outcomes, both of which were catastrophic. My biggest complaint was with the fact that several of the scenes looked like they were added in as an afterthought. This is most evident when Eva spends the night at Price’s place.

The movie was only 90 minutes. I felt that the movie could have done a little more, especially when it came to explaining the science that went into Abernathy’s project. Also, why is it that the heroes only have a few days to save the world? Couldn’t they at least be given a chance to work through official channels?

It’s a three-star movie. It’s entertaining, but only if you don’t ask too many questions. I’d recommend this movie on a night when there’s little else to watch. 

IMDb page