Stephen Hawking's Universe
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Movie Reviews of Stephen Hawking's Universe
Movie Review: Genius alert.
Summary: 4 Stars
Stephen Hawking is a genius, plain and simple. I find him and his theories fascinating, and this DVD is a great addition to my Oxford and Cambridge lectures and his first novel. If you are intrigued by S.Hawking (and let's face it most people are) then grab this great DVD now.Movie Review: Well Worth Owning ****4 stars****
Summary: 4 Stars
Sincerely, do yourself a favour and source out a BBC edition. I give it (5 Stars)It is an awesome package. Inspiring and well told. Something to watch again and again(Hence I've worn out the video cassette.)
This one is good too though. A matter of taste really.
Movie Review: Great information with a hefty compromise
Summary: 3 Stars
In General I agree with the negative reviews of this DVD. I had seen the PBS series and there is no doubt that the "text", the information on this DVD is of great importance for anyone. However the execution as a general interest TV series (meaning these DVD's) is greatly flawed. I have so far seen only the first episode on DVD and I already depise the the awful video. Only the shadows of people are visble. Close-ups shoes walking up stairs, bodies out of frame, all pieces that never build to a whole. In one of the most egregious examples of artifice (or just plain "operator headspace") a talking head (that means some person before the camera talks to someone off camera--as if in interview) is placed before an open widow with a strong ligt source of the sun shining on the villiage in the background from behind is CENTERED, and our subject (talking head) at far right barely in frame is, as some with photography experience can guess) is merely a shadow, so intentionally dark. It's like one of those shots were they intentially try to hide the speaker's identity. Our eyes wish to focus on the person speking, but it is so UNaestetic, and painful to focus using our eyes, that we naturally drift to the well lit background that has NOTHING to do with the words spoken. In fact the whole bloddy thing is DARK, intentionally, I believe. Yes, it is a style, but it is a LOUSY style: Distacting and UNaestetic. This is among the NOISIEST video transfers to DVD I have seen. No doubt due in part to the low lighting. Perhaps this was a compromise to the limitations of our dear Dr. Hawking, for he appears so very rarely, and when he does, the camera dawdles upon the meaningles disply of his voice synthesizer and other tricks to obsure his face. It seemed as if they didn't want to allow Hawking's face too much time on the tube, the implication that he is repulsive to the audience. He is NOT repuslive, and I would have LOVED longer shots of his face looking into the camera as the words are played. He does react. Also, many of the foreign scientists who speak do so in broken English that I and others feel breaks the pace and makes difficult to comprehend already weighty ideas. They should have spoken in their native language and then an interpreter's voice dubbed in later. I highly reccommend viewing the entire COSMOS with Dr. Carl Sagan FIRST. He provides and excellent foundation for grasping the NEW cosmological theories of the last 20 years on this DVD that picks up where COSMOS left off. Indeed Hawking's DVD explaination of the Doppler effect is ineffectual compared to the far supior use of video by Sagen in Cosmos. Perhaps it was the money. Don't forget that Cosmos was the MOST expensive TV series EVER at that time. They used state of the art effects and went all over the world for locations, and pefromed exercises with many props. and that Spaceship of the Imagaination was a lot of $$$$. They also had one of the BBC's best directing that series. At the time, BEFORE it aired, a lot of folks didnn't think the show would have mass appeal and that it would be an example of Public TV (specifically KCET, Los Angeles) folly. Well, we all know that it wasn't folly. It was revolutionary. But I don't think we will ever see another science series with a budget that was provided for Cosmos EVER again. Hawking's DVD for all the latest theories of the universe, but not much more.Movie Review: "I have sold more books on physics, than Madonna has on sex"
Summary: 3 Stars
It very well may be that Stephen Hawking is the greatest mind since Albert Einstein. The material on this DVD is nothing less than great, but falls short in the area of production, and presentation. I think most physics/science fans still hold all documentaries of this type, in comparison with Carl Sagan's: Cosmos.
With all fairness, the structure or style of the production, is more on the lines of a news documentary, with lots of interviews, a more mystery feel to the presentation. Editing seems a little ameture'ish, it would have been nice to leave out the sponsor slots, and the usual PBS station calls, these detract heavily from the entire experience really, even though they are done at the beginning and end of the episodes only. The musical score seems fitting, but don't expect any Vangelis like tracks, as in Cosmos. The nararator does a decent job, but personally, I would have liked to hear it more from Mr. Hawking himself, via his voice synthesizer. Of course that would have made it a longer DVD, but there could have been more graphical content to accompany the dialog too.
A good DVD set, that is packed with a wealth of knowledge, but killed by production. I suggest, If you haven't already, pick up Carl Sagan's: Cosmos.
Movie Review: 3 stars for information content, 1 star for replay-ability
Summary: 3 Stars
Let me start out by saying that I read A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking and really enjoyed it. But, then what a sad disappointment this series turned out to be. One could turn off the picture and just listen to the audio and get about as much interesting information. I realize that Dr. Sagan raised the bar pretty high but the makers of this documentary didn't even seem to care. Watch video sequences repeated over and over - sometimes not even relating to the narration that drones on in the background. Squint hard to see what is going on in the darkly lit sets as the camera super-slow pans into something that is supposed to be significant...but really isn't. I watched the entire series just waiting for a sequence that would capture my imagination. It never happened. As for replay-ability? I defy anyone who have made it through the entire series to watch it again. Dr. Hawking deserves better.