'Magnificent Desolation' Brings the Moon Down to Earth

Re-creation of Dave Scott, Apollo 15, kicking up moon dust in the IMAX 3D film Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D. CREDIT: Copyright 2005 IMAX Corporation and Playtone.

Even with NASA's new plan to put humans back on the Moon by 2018, that pale gray disk will likely remain out of reach for most of us stuck here on Earth.

But a new film hopes to bring the Moon a bit closer.

Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon in 3D is a stunning look at what it must have been like for the 12 NASA astronauts who traversed across the lunar surface during the six Apollo landings. Borrowing its title from words spoken by astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin - the second person to walk on the Moon - the IMAX film follows the landings, Moonwalks and thoughts of those few explorers that made the trip.

The film opens in 85 IMAX theaters nationwide, the largest release to date for a large-format feature.

Narrated by actor Tom Hanks, who served as producer and writer alongside director Mark Cowen, Magnificent Desolation fills in the gaps in his other forays into space, including the HBO mini-series From Earth to the Moon and, of course, Apollo 13.

While it is disheartening at first to learn that to some children - one girl in particular - the first person to walk on the moon must have been Lance Armstrong, Magnificent Desolation does its best to enlighten young and old viewers alike on the finer points of NASA's Apollo program.

The film gladly avoids detailing some of the more widely-known lunar missions - Apollo 11's first landing by Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, as well as Apollo 13's unlucky flight around the Moon without touching down - and offers a much-needed glimpse into the other flights that cemented NASA's Space Race victory over the then Soviet Union during the Cold War.

While portions of Magnificent Desolation may drag - in part due to the two-dimensional limitation of Apollo landing video - the film still compels one to take another good, hard look at the Moon.

By a fluke of timing, I missed out on NASA's Apollo program and instead was born into the space shuttle era in which humans remained locked in low Earth orbit. But Magnificent Desolation's timing is especially apt, considering NASA's announcement this week that it will return humans to the Moon by 2018, using Apollo-derived methods and modern technology. The message, it seems, is that NASA has done it before, and can do it again.

Human space exploration can be a very tricky thing. Aside from being outrageously cool, it's also outrageously expensive and risky. But the endeavor is justified by NASA's Apollo astronauts, who lend their own voices to Magnificent Desolation during archival footage and are voiced by well-known actors (Morgan Freeman, John Travolta and Paul Newman, to name a few) in intricately detailed recreations. Astronaut recollections are pulled from the Lunar Surface Journals, an archive of Moonwalk commentaries compiled by space scholar Eric Jones.

Like its predecessor Space Station 3D - an intriguing look not only at the orbital laboratory but how astronauts live onboard - Magnificent Desolation offers breathtaking views of humans exploring space.

The difference is that, for Space Station 3D, NASA actually sent a 3D IMAX camera into space to chronicle the ISS construction work of 25 astronauts, whereas Magnificent Desolation was created solely on Earth and relied on faithful sets and computer animation.

One can only hope that, if NASA meets its 2018 goal, Moon-bound astronauts will carry a 3D camera of their own to the lunar surface and bring back their own stories for us stuck here on Earth.

Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon in 3D opens today in 85 IMAX theaters nationwide. (Documentary, 40 minutes.)