L5 - First City in Space (IMAX)
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DVD Cover Information
Brand: Warner BrothersNarrator: James Garner
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: Academy Ratio, 1.33:1
Running Time: 35 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-06-07
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: X8001
Studio: Imax
Product features:
- Set 100 years in the future, L5: FIRST CITY IN SPACE is a story told in flashback by the first child born in space. The film combines incredible computer-generated imagery, actual footage taken of space expeditions and scientific data to create a compelling vision of how humans may live and travel in our solar system in the next centuryRunning Time: 35 min. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUM
Movie Reviews of L5 - First City in Space (IMAX)
Movie Review: A port city on the ocean of space...
Summary: 5 Stars
I first saw this movie at Moody Gardens at Galveston, Texas in the original IMAX and 3-D format. I've been pestering Sony ever since with enthusiastic inquiries as to when it would be available on DVD. At long last our wait is over.
The plot: Chieko is a little girl living on L5, and we see the colony through her eyes. The voice-over narration is her as an adult. A crisis arises: They need more water for their life-support system (and evidently can't afford to lift it up from Earth). Chieko's grandfather (also Senior Scientist of L5) makes a proposal. There's a comet passing by Jupiter. He advocates attaching a rocket to the comet to make it swing past Jupiter in such a way as to slingshot it around to where it will pass by L5 at regular intervals, and hence can be conveniently mined.
A robot spacecraft implants the rocket. But it won't fire. Chieko's father, Flight Commander Mori, is dispatched to repair the rocket. She is very concerned about him making it back safely, as indeed is everyone. As bad luck would have it, a solar flare interrupts communications at a critical juncture.
This is a great movie, in addition to being a wonderful introduction to the "High Frontier" concepts of Gerard O'Neill. Many aspects of the design of the L5 habitat are taken from an actual NASA study which looked with great detail into the necessities for sustaining human life in orbit. The plot is simple, but then the movie is only 35 minutes long, so it's the fault of the medium, not the writer (in the days this movie was made, it was the rare IMAX feature which went any longer than 40 minutes). There are the few inevitable science blunders, but they're very minor compared with most other shows set in space. For example, L5's depiction of the surface of a comet nearing the sun is a good deal more realistic than the considerably-hyperbolized version we saw in "Armageddon", or even "Deep Impact". By and large, these people did their research, and got it right.
There's only thing in this movie which I dislike: a brief jaunt into Virtual Reality (VR). Chieko discovers a snow globe which her mother has bought for her. Later on, she plays with friends on Earth in a simulated reality comprised of the snow globe, only life-sized with the children inside. Ever since "Star Trek: The Next Generation" there seems to have arisen a common belief that no one will want to go into space until there's a magic room which can simulate any reality. I hope not.
I would have far preferred to have seen Chieko ask if it could ever snow in L5, to be told, "No, we could make it cold enough, but there isn't enough water vapor in the air." Then later, after the comet retrieval, and when water is in greater supply, Chieko's grandfather could have arranged for it to snow on Christmas Eve. We could have had a very touching, human scene out of this more-realistic approach. But instead, "L5" chose to jump on the same VR bandwagon the rest of Hollywood was scrambling over at that time.
But don't get me wrong. This is a truly outstanding movie. The competent acting (Chieko's grandfather is particularly likeable) will pull you into the story, largely compensating for the simplicity of the plot and characterizations.
There are two bonus features on this DVD. One is a Korean educational short named "Journey to the Planets". It combines traditional animation (in the form of funny little space creatures) with the same kind of computer animation derived from actual space probe photography which we saw in "L5" (but in this case we get treated to fly-overs of Venus in addition to Mars). The space creatures are searching for a new home. As various planets of the solar system are encountered, the outstanding features of each are discussed. It's a curiously sedate short, with soft-spoken characters and periods of quiet.
The other bonus is the standard (but quite thrilling) trailer for the "IMAX Films on DVD" series.
"L5: First City in Space" offers a realistic glimpse of a possible future for us beyond our planet of origin. If you want a view of the High Frontier... this is the best we're going to get for a while.
I hope it's not a long while.
Mike Combs
Summary of L5 - First City in Space (IMAX)
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