Evacuer la terre

Can the human race create an arkship that will allow a selected number of refugees to escape a doomed Earth? Apparently so, according to this documentary. The thought experiment involves a roving neutral star on a collision course with our solar system. We've got 75 years before Earth is destroyed, and we must reorganize society, revolutionize our manufacturing capacity, and maintain social order in the face of certain doom for all but a few lucky people.

It's a rather mixed bag, but the concept is definitely intriguing. The worst problem is that this documentary is laughably bad. The dramatic sequences are probably the weakest element; they are horribly melodramatic and very poorly acted, but I suppose they have a certain "so bad it's good" charm. The science is actually better than I expected. I guess if you're a stickler, there will probably be several issues that you can't forgive. For example, as the neutron star approaches Earth, there really isn't much gravitational effect. They do discuss this, but it generally doesn't happen until pretty late in the scenario. Seems a bit unlikely to me. Then again, I slept through most of my physics lectures.

Anyway, as the Earth adapts to this threat, we face several critical questions. Each of them are answered rather quickly and simplistically, perhaps to make way for more dramatic sequences. The balance was all wrong. A few well-placed sequences to underscore the drama would have been much better than the constant use of stock footage, melodrama, and bad CGI. Also, I really don't know that I agree with their story-based approach; I would have preferred something a bit more analytical. They could have asked and explored really deep questions instead of repeatedly showing people unconvincingly panicking in the face of bad CGI. For example, society could go in several different directions, such as dystopian or utopian responses to the threat. It seems as though the creators of this documentary had a specific vision for humanity, and they weren't really interested in exploring any other ideas. I'm not saying that I necessarily disagree, but it's kind of intellectually lazy and preachy.

All in all, this is propaganda for spacetravel enthusiasts. If you're one of them, you'll probably love this, as it will reinforce all your beliefs and congratulate you for forward-thinking vision. If you're not an enthusiast, then you'll probably find it cheesy and preachy. The intriguing questions are answered unsatisfactorily, and any entertainment value is strictly unintentional.

I appreciated the contributions of very real and obviously very knowledgeable people to this. "Evacuate Earth" deals with how humanity would handle a very real doomsday scenario. In this case, the movie opens with earth being bombarded by destructive asteroids, and as astronomers investigate where they're coming from they discover that there's a neutron star heading right toward our solar system that will literally tear the earth apart in about 75 years. Neutron stars are the collapsed shells of massive stars whose own collapse propels them through space at tremendous speeds. Possessing massive gravity, they literally destroy anything in their path. I appreciated that information.

The portrayal of how humanity would respond was very believable. The neutron star having been discovered, the response is to build a gigantic spacecraft which could transport humanity to some other world (ultimately, in this production, revealed to be an earth-like planet in orbit around Barnard's Star.) There's a good portrayal of the need for humanity to set aside its differences to work together on such a massive project, and some very good information on the possibilities for how to fuel such a massive ship, and how to achieve enough speed to make such a voyage possible. Ultimately using nuclear technology, apparently it's possible to reach a velocity of 7% of the speed of light, which would get such a ship to Barnard's Star in less than a hundred years. The means of developing artificial gravity were portrayed, and there was useful consideration of how to provide food and water for those making the journey, as well as how to govern the quarter million or so who would be on board. There's also some consideration of exactly who would make the journey - since it isn't feasible to get 7 billion people off the earth. Issues such as genetic diversity and susceptibility to disease have to be factored in. So it can't just be a lottery system, nor can you just pick the richest and most powerful people. The rich, of course, have their own resources - and it's pointed out that they'll probably try their own exit strategy.

What didn't work for me quite as well as all that? The time-clock countdown was one thing. Obviously added for dramatic effect, it came across as silly. I'm no physicist or astronomer, but from what I know I don't think that such cosmic occurrences can be timed quite so precisely, so that as the neutron star approaches the solar system, an astronomer watching can pinpoint almost to the second the destruction of Saturn. That just doesn't seem possible to me. Even the 75-year clock seems a bit too precise. This didn't add anything useful for me. It gave this a Hollywood action-movie feel. I honestly could have done without the fake news reports as well, many of which came across as less than believable - poorly acted, quite frankly. And those things did detract from this, for me at least. I was interested in a far more serious portrayal of what was going to happen and how humanity would respond. When "Evacuate Earth" stuck to that, it was very good. When it moved more into the area of drama, it was less enjoyable. (6/10)