[X] My Assistant

[slinted]

This isn't really a Spirit only topic, but since she has been on Mars a bit longer, I'll give her the honor of this thread.

http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/rovingmars/

January 27 release

[CosmicRocker]

...I'm hoping to see Roving Mars soon at the nearest theater in NYC

I managed to see it today, and it was awesome.

...(reply from @Bristol who say they are going to see it at the end of March and decide if they want to show after that)

Doug: That person just doesn't get it, but after they see it, I'm certain they'll show it.

...
One aspect I especially liked were the gorgeous, high-detail shots of the flight hardware.  ...

And while on the subject of films, perhaps if this were the plot of Roving Mars it might have a chance at the Oscars. 

I'm certainly not qualified to be a movie critic, but I would have to guess that anyone who hangs out here would love this movie. I could nit-pick it, but if their time budget really was only 40 minutes, I think they did a pretty good job. The highly detailed images of the hardware really impressed me, although I was really waiting for the highly detailed images of the rocks and Martian geomorphology to come. After having been fooled several times about the size of the rovers and the parts of the rovers seen in some of the imagery, this film finally put it all into perspective for me.

The "enhanced" Maas animation was quite fine, though one could complain about the cheesy image used for the Moon, and the sounds in a vacuum. Beyond the amazing hardware assembly and testing stuff, I really appreciated the various fly-throughs of the pancam panoramas and the digital terrain of Mars. I could have sat through more of those.

After recently having to create a highly-condensed MER presentation for the general public myself, I'd say this was a very fine piece of work. If I had to find a problem with it, it would only be that the "time budget" was too short. Might we hope for a "roving Mars II" sequel? I hope to go to see it another time. I'll give it five stars.
*****

[mars loon]

I managed to see it today, and it was awesome.
Doug:  That person just doesn't get it, but after they see it, I'm certain they'll show it.

After recently having to create a highly-condensed MER presentation for the general public myself, I'd say this was a very fine piece of work.  If I had to find a problem with it, it would only be that the "time budget" was too short.  Might we hope for a "roving Mars II" sequel?  I hope to go to see it another time.  I'll give it five stars.
*****

CR thanks for the summary

I am really surprised/dissapointed at the limited run of theaters, only a few locations in 15 US States. In the entire NE there are just 3 in the NYC area and 1 in RI and nothing between NYC and Washington, DC. Sadly this will severly limit the viewership. Hopefully more will come online in the future

[mcaplinger]

I am really surprised/dissapointed at the limited run of theaters...

I don't know much about the economics of IMAX in general or of non-commercial IMAX theaters like those at museums. The commercial theaters have 35mm IMAX blowups of Hollywood movies competing with science productions, and that probably makes science a tough sell. I suspect that showing ROVING MARS is fairly costly for a museum theater, but I don't know how much. And I understand that even running an IMAX theater is pretty expensive; $150K just for annual maintenance.

Of course, in San Diego the only IMAX option we have is the dome at the Fleet Space Theater, which makes watching most IMAX films a painful experience anyway, IMHO.
But it's surprising that the California Science Center in LA isn't getting it either.
Maybe the release was timed too closely with MAGNIFICENT DESOLATION.