This overview of the Spirit and Opportunity rover missions covers all the bases. It takes us through the highs and lows of the adventure, shows us the personalities behind the technology. And it's all presented with high production values, highlighted by detailed computer-graphic visualizations of the rovers as they travel the Martian terrain.
That said, I found the whole thing a bit over-done. The effort to drum up emotional involvement was so relentless, I found it distracting and gushy. The voice-overs are full of needless hyperbole. There's a strenuous and rather ludicrous effort to anthropomorphize the robotic rovers - which, in the end, have about as much personality as the family car.
Good Night Oppy does do a good job of presenting the human side of the Mars project - but it completely misses the larger story, about Mars itself. By pitching everything on the level of Hollywood melodrama, it explains almost nothing and obscures the real excitement of scientific discovery.
The exploration of alien planets is exciting enough that it doesn't need to be 'hyped up.' I'd have much preferred a deeper dive into the science - but, alas, the nature of the experiments performed by the rovers is barely alluded to, and the results of those experiments are not fully explained. (Perhaps because they've been 'negative' - in that they've failed to find unequivocal signs of ancient life. That's important science, but the filmmakers obviously didn't trust the audience to understand.)
To be sure, Good Night Oppy is worth seeing if you're interested in space exploration or Mars or rover technology. But if you're only going to see one film on this topic, I'd strongly recommend the 2019 National Geographic documentary Expedition Mars. On a much lower budget than Good Night Oppy it offers more science - and, for me, stronger drama - in a shorter running time.
That said, I found the whole thing a bit over-done. The effort to drum up emotional involvement was so relentless, I found it distracting and gushy. The voice-overs are full of needless hyperbole. There's a strenuous and rather ludicrous effort to anthropomorphize the robotic rovers - which, in the end, have about as much personality as the family car.
Good Night Oppy does do a good job of presenting the human side of the Mars project - but it completely misses the larger story, about Mars itself. By pitching everything on the level of Hollywood melodrama, it explains almost nothing and obscures the real excitement of scientific discovery.
The exploration of alien planets is exciting enough that it doesn't need to be 'hyped up.' I'd have much preferred a deeper dive into the science - but, alas, the nature of the experiments performed by the rovers is barely alluded to, and the results of those experiments are not fully explained. (Perhaps because they've been 'negative' - in that they've failed to find unequivocal signs of ancient life. That's important science, but the filmmakers obviously didn't trust the audience to understand.)
To be sure, Good Night Oppy is worth seeing if you're interested in space exploration or Mars or rover technology. But if you're only going to see one film on this topic, I'd strongly recommend the 2019 National Geographic documentary Expedition Mars. On a much lower budget than Good Night Oppy it offers more science - and, for me, stronger drama - in a shorter running time.