The Black Hole (1979)

SPOILER WARNING!!! This Post spoils movie The Black Hole (1979).

The Black Hole raises one big question. How much success of Star Wars changed it? I mean that during first hour it is serious science fiction movie. Then there is about 20 minutes of Star Wars and last ten minutes are a trip from science fiction to strange dream. That 20 minutes of Star Wars could have been easily replaced by same science fiction that first hour was.

Security robots were there only to enable 20 minutes of Star Wars. Movie would have been better without them. There was no point of having them on board unless robots were on control. There was little hint of this, but right after hinting it, we saw that wasn't the case, since Reinhardt called all the shots. Because robots weren't in control, there was no point of having them, because Reinhardt was on scientific mission.

USS Cygnus was long-lost ship that was sent to find habitable planets. Smaller ship Palomino finds it next to black hole. Crew of Palomino finds only Reinhardt and robots onboard of Cygnus. Reinhardt tells that rest of the crew had left Cygnus earlier. He had stayed onboard and made scientific break troughs. He is about to make his next big experiment. Reinhardt is mad scientist, who is ready to make anything for knowledge. Later we learn how far he has gone and how far he is ready to go. Palomino crew tries to find out what has happened. This takes the first hour. First hour is quite slow having big and beautiful models and sets.

Then crew finds out what Reinhardt has done and what he is about to do. Reinhardt has killed all the Cygnus crew and turned them into robots. I don't understand reason for this, unless they didn't want to follow him. Cygnus could have sustained them. Turning them to robots didn't make sense either. Movie didn't tell reasons why he needed human robots. He had security robots, that were more emotional than human robots. We learn that he wants to go to black hole and beyond. When his plans are revealed, Reinhardt want to kill the crew of Palomino or turn them into robots. This is where Star Wars part starts. Star Wars part is not that bad, but movie's mood changes during this time. I would have liked this part to be done without fighting. It didn't suit the beginning of the movie or the end of the movie.

During Star Wars part Reinhardt flies Cygnus into black hole. Ship is hit by meteors and starts breaking. There is no point why Cygnus needs to be going to black hole. Reinhardt's plan is to fly to black hole with small probe. Why destroy Cygnus, if he flies to black hole with probe? Reinhardt can't make it to probe, but crew of Palomino makes and they fly to black hole. Then movie totally loses it. Movie turns into strange dream until probe enters beyond black hole. What makes it even worse, another scifi movie have redone this strange dream and made it main plot point. Here it was just strange few minutes. Without those few minutes that other movie would had another main plot point and been much better movie.

The Black Hole has a reputation of being Star Wars rip-off. It has that 20 minutes, but movie is much more than that. First hour is actually good science fiction. Movie looks and sounds good. Story is interesting. But then it starts to go down hill. Destruction of Cygnus looks good, but that fighting was unnecessary. First hour makes this movie worth watching. Movie was better than I expected. It deserves cult movie status it has. It could have had more philosophical study of limits of how far scientists can go in their search for knowledge. 20 minutes of Star Wars could have been replaced by that.