medussan
on
10th Mar 1999

I'm 51 years old, from Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Here's a movie review...
2050 aka Solar Crisis is one of my favorite movies. I saw the Japanese subtitled version known as 2050. I saw Solar Crisis years later. There are significant differences between the two.
2050 is more artistic. I well up with tears when watching some scenes. I am particularly touched when Corin Nemec is found by Charlton Heston at the seaside. The music and waves are quite touching as they try to reach Corin's father on the daring mission to the sun.

The print of the 2050 is much darker visually than Solar Crisis. But the overall impression of 2050 has more cinematic impact. The music is used to greater effect. The heroine is Alex Knopf, a biogene logician. Her inner turmoil as a biologically enhanced organism is aggravated by being programmed to end the mission to the sun.

A key scene in the movie is when they must stop a premature countdown of a bomb. It has all the hallmarks of any failsafe situation where humans find themselves at the mercy of their technology. All is almost lost until the computer is supplied with proper voice authorization to halt the detonation.

Another is when a crewmember volunteers to fix a mission critical system that will surely result in his death to save the mission. I found this scene to be riveting. This was a character that I cared about. He is Joe Anyman. But the selflessness of his nobility saves the day for the rest of us.

The special effects are top notch. The orbital platform Skytown. The mission to the sun is staged with key shots of loading Freddie The antimatter bomb onto the main space vehicle. Paul Williams is the voice of Freddie and provides an example of a virtual agent interface to a bomb that will trigger a solar flare. The OS of the bomb relates its functioning to how a person would feel. For example annihilation events are felt by Freddie. He feels ill until magnetic suspension fields are corrected to optimize containment of the antimatter.

All in all I like the execution of the movie. I found it very believable. With touches of a technologically jaundiced eye at the fallibility of computer software and hardware. And imagery that makes one appreciate the fragility of our blue jewel in the cosmos. A heartwarmer.

In Solar Crisis there is a extended scene that isn't in 2050 that explains how Corin survives on the seacost until he is located by his grandfather(Heston). Otherwise Solar Crisis is an alternate splicing of scenes in 2050. SC is more relationship oriented. While 2050 is more technological intrigue. In 2050 more is left unsaid and left to the viewer to construct.
The director credits himself in 2050 as Richard C. Sarafian. While he disowns the cut of Solar Crisis with the Alan Smithee pseudonym.