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The Planets |
List Price: $24.99
Your Price: $22.49 |
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Reviews |
Features:
Description:
Isao Tomita's solo electronic interpretation of Gustav Holst's ground-shaking, daring, 1916 symphonic suite is the only reason to listen to, er, watch, this DVD. But be warned: there are several exceptional CDs of Holst's piece that might better suit your ears. Sadly, the visual accompaniment by director Don Barrett dulls the soaring, gorgeous score. The visual side of the DVD is a strange collision of basic textbook astronomy lessons, grainy outer space photography, and outdated supercomputer animation. This unexciting presentation is mashed over Tomita's remix of Holst's suite and then segmented into a lecture on each planet. The result is a tiresome show that undercuts the beauty of "Venus" and the power of "Jupiter." Alas, Houston, there is a problem. The Planets was made in 1991 and to be fair, home theater has accelerated in leaps and bounds in the several years since. But the bigger question remains: why bother to release a DVD of such tepid technology at all? IMAX is infinitely superior and even the late genius Stanley Kubrick, in his three-decade-old 2001: A Space Odyssey, showed more chutzpah and imagination than this dated misfire. --Paula Nechak
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