★★★½ Hubble 3D (IMAX)

[Tiny: 3.5]

Tiny says: 'The only thing keeping this documentary (which I saw at the Air and Space Museum in D.C.) from being even better was the sense of a missing final act, in that I would have liked to have seen the astronauts return to earth and react to their success. Anyway, this movie is doing two things at once: its "secondary" task is to bring you views, in jawdropping 3D, of some images from the Hubble telescope, including fascinating views of a nebula; its "primary" task is to track the mission of the astronauts who made the final repairs to the Hubble telescope. (I could imagine some people seeing the primary/secondary pieces reversed, which relates to my criticism about the missing final act.) As amazing as the imagery from the "secondary" task is, it is the "primary" stuff that is most gripping. Easily the closest I'll ever come to feeling like an astronaut in space -- the Imax/3D imagery here was really incredible, as you seemingly are floating over the shoulder of astronauts making extra-vehicular repairs, with the earth looming down below. There is also good footage of the training and the launch. I couldn't help but think, "This mission is hard enough -- wasn't it just making it worse having to have an Imax camera involved?" Note: The 3D/Imax is about 85% of the value here; I wouldn't say this is a "must see documentary" if you can't see it in that fashion.'