Back to the Moon for Good at the National Space Centre

October half term was filled with almost intellectual activities for the children. We went to the ballet, I took them to the House of Lords and we went on a whistle-stop tour of the major sights in the area, spotting Princess Anne and George Osborne along the way (not together, I hasten to add). We even went to see a Victorian underground reservoir near home that was going to be demolished a few days later.

The end of the holiday week saw us getting up early on a Sunday when we could have had a lie in and heading down to Leicester to the National Space Centre. Once we'd passed the downpours (we were ahead of this accident by 10 minutes), it was a bright sunny day and we made the trip from Lancashire in a couple of hours, arriving just before it opened. 

After a brew and a bit of breakfast (which meant Monkey foraging for what food he could find), we went off to explore the Space Centre. The children loved the interactive displays, and had fun being weather forecasters, bein astronauts and looking at rockets. We went in the scenic lift up to the top but it was too high for me. Children didn't even notice. 

The main purpose of the day was to see the worldwide premiere of the film called Back to the Moon for Good which tells the story of the Google Lunar X-Prize. Teams around the world are currently competing to be the first to land a robotic spacecraft on the moon, get it to travel 500 metres and send video, images and data back to earth. It's designed to renew interest in space exploration again and all these teams are private groups, not government funded. The prize is $30 million. Worth having then! (If you want to have a go, you're already too late; teams had to be registered some time back.). The film was made in-house at National Space Centre by their creative team, who are obviously very clever and talented people. 

The film was shown in the Sir Patrick Moore Planetarium, which is a full dome planetarium showing this film and the largest of its sort in the UK, that opened just last year. That's right - a full dome. To give you an idea, here's a photo I took inside before the film started. Bit blurry,  but that's all screen! I was a little apprehensive because the last time I watched a film in a similar set up, I was 18 weeks pregnant with Monkey and I started feeling very sick from motion sickness (something I don't usually get) and it took me about 20 minutes to recover. 

Before we went in, we were treated to a gourmet popcorn buffet - never thought I'd see the day when I'd say my favourite flavour was goat's cheese and black pepper. 

When the film started, it is truly an assault on your senses. You feel like you are in the film. The way it is put together is incredible. I loved it and would definitely recommend seeing it but during the film, the sense of movement is so strong that my brain started getting confused and started making me feel sick (tho it could have been too much popcorn!). I had to keep closing my eyes when there was a sense of movement on screen. Obviously, it's just me as no-one else seems to have been bothered by it. 

The children were completely mesmerised by it all, so much so that a few days ago, some two weeks after this event, Monkey told me that he'd been "dolly-daydreaming" about going into space. I guess that's part of the reason for the prize - not just to get people doing it, but to inspire future generations too. 

After the film (and I started to feel better almost straight away), we were able to ask questions about the prize. Someone from Google attended, as well as members of the German team competing for the prize. The children managed to wheedle a poster each out of us before we left, even though they had been given a cuddly space animal each already. 

Google plans to send a copy of the film in flat screen form to all schools. However, if you can, catch it in a fulldome. You can find all the locations where the film will be shown here. There are 11 around the UK and over 80 around the world. 

(NSC invited us to spend a day visiting the Space Centre and to attend the premiere of Back to the Moon for Good. Thanks also to them for providing lunch, gourmet popcorn, and  pace toys for the children.)

All aboard the Polar Express!

On Sunday, we took a little trip over the tops to Yorkshire to the National Media Museum in Bradford for a very special event. The children were excited but the person most excited of all was my husband. Because we were going to see The Polar Express. In 3D. In IMAX 3D.

The Polar Express is one of his Christmas traditions. He has two films he likes to watch every Christmas (the other being It's a Wonderful Life) and since the children were little, he's sat them down with hot chocolate on Christmas Eve and made them watch it. Luckily, they share his love of the film.

When we were first invited, we weren't sure if we would be able to make it. We worked out that there was only one date that we could all make to see the film before it finishes showing on 12th December. Luckily, at the very last minute, we were able to arrange to go to the screening after a little bit of juggling, although it meant getting there not long before the filming, leaving us very little time to look around the museum itself.

The only thing that really annoyed me about the day was the queueing system for the cinema - we queued up some stairs, went round up some stairs, long down some stairs and virtually back where we started. The queueing took so long that we didn't have a lot of time before the showing.  However, we found seats together although there is not a lot of legroom for adults, as the cinema is quite steep.

An IMAX screen is much bigger and has a higher resolution than a standard screen - it's about the size of five storeys. Making it 3D is the next step but of course that means you need to wear the sexy glasses which were handed out at the door. I couldn't answer for how different it looked because I'd never seen it all the way through before (I normally use it as an excuse to get some stuff done or have some peace!) but the 3D effects were great - so much so that Missy Woo kept putting her hand out to touch things.

If you don't know the story, a young boy is trying to stay awake on Christmas Eve to see Father Christmas. Instead, a steam train turns up to take him and other children to the North Pole to see the great man himself. The story is CGI animation fantasy and in 3D, it's just enchanting. Some of the angles had me closing my eyes, especially the part where they go down Glacier Gulch. My husband always tells the story of the time we went to the Hemisferic (a domed IMAX cinema) in Valencia whilst pregnant with Monkey and I actually felt sick during and after the film for about 20 minutes so I was trying to avoid the repetition. The effects are amazing although occasionally, the picture looked a bit blurry to me but that might have been the angle I was sat at. The story however really does come out of the screen! Even though everyone knew the story, we all thoroughly enjoyed it.

I somehow think that, despite the fact that we are getting a new telly (not 3D) for Christmas, that this year's Christmas Eve viewing of The Polar Express will not be quite the same!

(Thanks to the National Media Museum for giving us 4 tickets to see The Polar Express in their IMAX cinema. You can see The Polar Express there until 12th December.)

Going on a Journey 2...

No, I haven't descended into textspeak (hate it!), but Warner Brothers sent us to the cinema to see Journey 2: The Mysterious Island in 3D, which went on general release last weekend. Now, I had never been to see a proper 3D film before, although the rest of the family had been once or twice before. Monkey was surprisingly reticent about going, because he'd seen trailers and knew it was a bit scary.

I've always shied away from 3D films, partly because I am heavily influenced by all the Mayo and Kermode film reviews and Mark Kermode clearly doesn't like 3D. His argument is that it adds nothing to the story and therefore doesn't add to the overall experience. So, I thought, we'll see.

Not being the one that generally takes the children to the cinema, I had never heard of the Journey films before. I assume the number 2 meant it was a sequel but husband told me that he thought it wasn't. I guess he thought it was some form of terrible textspeak but on looking it up, it certainly is a sequel to Journey to the Centre of the Earth but that the only character appearing in both films was Josh Hutcherson, playing Sean. This time, Sean receives a radio signal from his explorer grandad played by Michael Caine that he has found the Mysterious Island written about by Jules Verne and helped by his stepfather (played by The Rock aka Dwayne Johnson), he locates it to being near the Pacific island of Palau. They go to Palau and find a helicopter, flown by Luis Guzmán with his daughter, played by Vanessa Hudgens, to take them onto the island. The story follows what happens when they get to the island and find Sean's grandfather.

The Mysterious Island

It's fair to say we all enjoyed the film.There is a lot of CGI so it looks beautiful and obviously the 3D made it an interesting experience. The film is rated a PG, which means that they say it should be fine for over 8s. Mine were fine with it, although they did find a few things a little scary but not to the point of being scared to death or reduced to tears. Monkey hid behind his coat a few times but actually, I think he was enjoying being scared! There were as many giggles as there were frightened reactions. Certainly, I would not take very young children nor any that are sensitive or not used to the cinema and because of the nature of 3D, you really do think that things are heading for you, which a young child might not understand.

Michael Caine was Michael Caine. (Does he play anyone else?) I do actually like him - two of my  favourite films of all time are Get Carter! and The Italian Job, although he does seem to be roughly the same character in every film, just in different situations. As for The Rock, well, he did a good job, but I spent a lot of time wondering if this film had been built around him - like a window display for his many talents as some of the scenes seemed to be set up entirely to show how great he was at various things and it made me suspicious that this was a "vehicle" film.

As for the 3D, I did enjoy it/ Kermode is right in that it doesn't add anything to the story. However, it does add to the overall experience and makes it more memorable. Yes, I would have enjoyed the film without it, but certainly I remembered various things all the more for them seeming to come out at me at various points. Monkey almost ducked twice too! I feel churlish not having seen a 3D film before but then, I remember that it should have cost £30; which personally, I feel is very expensive for something that is over in a couple of hours. Had we bought drinks and popcorn, we would have easily spent £50 for all of us. People just don't have that sort of money to spend regularly on going to the cinema; perhaps cinema is becoming the sole preserve of the affluent? Saddens me that this might be the case because it is a great experience. There are cheap deals - we use them a lot - but they rarely, if ever, show 3D and it is not something you can easily replicate at home either.

Rant over... I think families with children a similar age to Monkey and Missy Woo or slightly older would enjoy this. It is a nice piece of escapism and if you need something to fill a rainy afternoon. especially over half term, it'll do the job perfectly, if a little hard on the pocket.

(Warner Brothers sent us a gift card so that we could go to see Journey 2: The Mysterious Island at our local cinema. I have not received any further compensation for this post, I have not been told what to write and all words and opinions are my own.)