The explorer craft USS Palomino is returning to Earth after a fruitless 18-month search for extra-terrestrial life when the crew comes upon a supposedly lost ship, the USS Cygnus, hovering near a black hole. The ship is controlled by Dr. Hans Reinhardt and his monstrous robot companion, but the initial wonderment and awe the Palomino crew feel for the ship and its resistance to the power of the black hole turn to horror as they uncover Reinhardt's plans.
Disney's most ambitious and costly production to date -- about a spaceship crew which encounters a Black Hole and a long-lost madman -- and if looks were everything, you could hardly fault it.
– ,
Time Out,
9 Feb 2006
rotten:
Takes us all the way to the rim of space only to bog us down in a talky melodrama whipped up out of mad scientists and haunted houses.
– Roger Ebert,
Chicago Sun-Times,
23 Oct 2004
fresh:
It cost half as much as Star Trek and looks better -- not as lavish, perhaps, but more original. The special effects are fancy, and the design even more so.
– Janet Maslin,
New York Times,
9 May 2005
fresh:
It is good to see the Disney craftsmen doing what they do best on such a grand and risky scale. If one has time for only one space opera this season, this is the one to choose.