From: psperson1@ix.netcom.invalid   
      
   On Thu, 23 Sep 2021 20:05:12 -0600, Joe Pfeiffer   
    wrote:   
      
   >Paul S Person  writes:   
   >   
   >> I finally rented this from Amazon and saw it last night.   
   >>   
   >> It is a well-done film and would be worth four stars except for one   
   >> small problem: it is as dull as dishwater. Three stars, then.   
   >>   
   >> This may not be apparent unless you view it, as I did, as being in the   
   >> same "realistic space movie" category as /Apollo 13/. Comparing the   
   >> two shows the difference between a really good movie and one that is   
   >> well-done but ... dispensible.   
   >>   
   >> IMHO, of course.   
   >   
   >And not a HO I share in the slightest.  I had the same sense of constant   
   >tension in the Martian as I did in Apollo 13.   
      
   There is no need for you to share my HO. You are entitled to your own.   
      
   I had the blahs all too much of the time.   
      
   And, the moment they skipped the pre-launch tests because "they only   
   catch a problem one time in twenty" I /knew/ the rocket was going to   
   explode. It was cinematically inevitable.   
      
   I will concede that the climax was a bit exciting, although, again, it   
   was cinematically impossible for the attempt to fail. So any tension   
   was of the "how do they manage it" rather than "will they manage it"   
   variety.   
      
   Just as, when I watched /The Bad Seed/, I shortly found I could tell   
   when someone would be knocking at the door: the conversation was   
   heading toward a point where two characters would be able to compare   
   notes and figure what was going on, and /that/ couldn't be allowed.   
   The knock at the door stopped the conversation every time -- and it   
   never resumed from the point of interruption.   
      
   The climax, while quite rushed, was, however, a suprise.   
      
   The child abuse at the end was ... well, I am old enough to recognize   
   that it was amusing to the audience, but I no longer find it so.   
      
   >I'll say having any tension at all in Apollo 13 is a *real* tribute to   
   >everyone involved in the film, since we all know how it came out decades   
   >before the movie was made.   
      
   Which is what makes it a /much/ better movie.   
      
   And /2001/ did it better as well.   
   --   
   "I begin to envy Petronius."   
   "I have envied him long since."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)