Wild Wild Space

I know, mine is a bold statement. But consider this: in an era of youtube "explainers" (disguised as documentaries) where the visuals guide the narration and where there's an unnecessary amount of "so this is...", "look at this..." , "and now we are going to..." wild wild space is actually a solid, old school, beautiful documentary that requires the audience to put in a bit of effort to appreciate the whole thing.

(I admit I had to watch twice to digest it)

Thematic, not character driven. Yes we follow 3 CEOs/founders of 3 startups meant to send rockets and satellites in the sky (and ideally make money in the process) and yes their personalities and actions may represent different shades of humanity... but the background color is pretty much the same: ambition.

I do think it is intentional: everything related to the 3 guys has to slowly fade away to leave space (pun intended) to the thematic train of this ambitious work, smartly introduced in the title. The outer space as the last frontier is a wild wild space where everything is possible like in the old days and big fortune are just around the corner. It's a wild wild space ladies and gentlemen. Or... is it?

Not really: the funding needed, the crazy scientific know how, the various government' agencies... it's all but a no man's land where the fastest and the strongest and the luckiest can get their share of the pie. It's a highly regulated game that only those in the known can eventually have access to it, even though it will affect the rest of humanity.

The main obstacle for the contemporary minds (affected by high fast editing + in your face exposition) is exactly this: we drift away from the characters to get to the core of it: space and who runs the show.

Editing is excellent, loved the pacing. Not sure if it's because of the nature of the subject matter (you know build a rocket slowly and then booom go up in space) but the way it floes is one of the most enjoyable experiences on screen in a while.

Remarkable the fact that the filming crew followed the CEOs and whatnot for several years. Congrats for the dedication.

Sotrywise good job deciding to not include any technical jargon and so on. It would have been distracting.

Side note: pretty sure the 3 guys allowed the production to follow them to get some good PR exposure, like Elon Musk did with "Revenge of the Electric Car"

I was BLOWN AWAY by this documentary. Such an important topic, our outer space, and what is happening to it. I think we all feel like there is governmental oversight of any rogue companies that decide to build and send rockets capable of sending satellites into Earth orbit, but there really is not! This I found to be TERRIFYING! Bad enough bad actors like China and Russia can do it, but so can pretty much anyone with the money and know-how to build rockets!

I had no idea the volume of traffic orbiting our planet; 15,000 satellites and more going up all the time! Eventually there will be so many that they cannot help but start to run into each other; then what?!? Giant fields of space debris!! Space seemed like that last frontier for peace and tranquility, but leave it to us humans to go and muck that up!

There is a LOT to learn from this EXCELLENT documentary. The journalist that is interspersed throughout it, that apparently produced it, is an exceptional speaker and detailed orator. I was glued to the screen for every moment, then off to my computer when it was over to further research. I saw a couple reviews that slammed this documentary; clearly people incapable of understanding the serious nature of what is going on in our skies, and how massively it is and will impact life on Earth; good, but a lot of REALLY bad!!

This thing, whatever it is, seem more or less fake to me. Its like they tried to make a copycat production of Elon Musks life but with other characters.

From start to finish it comes off as some way to steal attention from Elon Musk, some kind of takedown of Elon Musk, a cia production a la information war.

The main characters are described as nerds and certainly looks like it and acts like it, but it also seems to be very much an act. The viewer are peppered with fast clips that seem to lack reality but are attempted to sell themself as reality. For example we get to see fast clips of flashbacks of these main characters past where they are pretended to do crazy stuff in 2006 but filmed with a videorecorder from 1970, it doesnt add up.

This thing is selling you brainwash and lies, its clearly a deep state production to deceive the youth of a false reality.

2/10.

The documentary follows two small companies nearly invisible in the shadow of SpaceX as they attempt to carve their own slice of near Earth launches pie.

One company is driven by a man lacking formal education in rocketry, rejected by NASA but driven as a pioneer should be. New Zealander Peter Beck is the hearth, soul and charm of this documentary, his pursuit of space is endearing and he's someone who's company I'd gladly follow in a continuous series as they pursue further milestones.

The other company was founded as a result of a meeting between Peter Beck and Chris Kemp. What was meant to be a partnership resulted in Chris Kemp starting his own company. Everything Beck is, Kemp isn't. The wannabe Musk oozes arrogance and illusion of grandeur and his pursuit is governed by one very simple goal... making money. To his credit, he's apparently capable of selling snow to an Eskimo, his only redeeming quality in pursuit of orbit. Everything else is accomplished by people around him.

The contrast between the two companies can't be more evident.

The best part about this documentary is showing how American politics and bureaucracy managed to cripple progress since the golden age of space exploration. If these small companies can accomplish as much as they did in relatively short period of time, imagine what a massive well funded organization could have accomplished in decades. It's infuriating.

All in all, it's a fun watch.

The show opens with Chris Kemp getting in a car with the documentary crew and the first words out of his mouth are that, he doesn't have a valid driver's licence, car insurance or registration for the vehicle! Does that sound like the kind of person you'd want running a company building and launching rockets?

The show is full of maverick's who think they can shortcut lessons learned the hard way by NASA and other nations space agencies..they can't! These people aren't in it for the pure science & exploration, they're nothing short of speculative carpet baggers.

It's more likely that, if they keep going with their cavalier attitudes, they're liable to cost everyone the ball game, if/when one or two out of control satellites cause a chain reaction of shrapnel smashing into each other, until they're all gone and low earth orbit becomes a useless briar patch.

I'm all for get up and go enterprise, but maybe someone should remind them, nobody will be naming schools after people who set humanity back to the 1950's in the name of MAKING MONEY!!!