Hubble 3D

NASA’s famous space telescope was carried by shuttle into Earth’s orbit 20 years ago. Within weeks of that launch, it was discovered that this huge and hugely expensive bastard had a flawed optical system. Hubble was a real lemon.

Toni Myers’ new IMAX doc about the Hubble is a first-person snapshot of 2009’s final rescue mission, in which seven astronauts risked their necks to manually fix the telescope, making it the most dangerous job in tech-support history. Even at 43 minutes, with earnest but marketable narration by Leonardo DiCaprio and one amusing zero-gravity taco-preparation scene, Hubble 3D‘s perilous endeavors are about as thrilling to watch as plumbers snaking a drain … in spacesuits.

If you want an eye-popping cosmic epic, rent Star Trek. If you want interactivity, take the kids to the planetarium.