The truly distracting thing about this (in a film full of distracting things) is that Dr. Reinhardt's ship, the USS Cygnus, seems to be made up of 98% empty space. A glorious mess of a movie.
Suspend your disbelief for a while, forget about the laws of physics, and don't let Stephen Hawking know your watching it. Top flight cast in a movie that looks like it was an Irwin Allen disaster film. Spooky robots. Maximilian Schell is great (plus it's cool just to say his name... Maximilian Schell... so cool)
Beautiful trash. Nothing like a black hole to draw one's attention to the cavernous ineffectuality of meaning, the illusion of spirit, the inescapable futility of our toil when confronted by the uninterested tread of eternity, collapsing within the infinite into naught. This is a kid's movie. I'm fairly certain the robot that looks like Disney merchandise quoted Virgil at one point.
Oh my, what a piece of Sci-Fi cinema... nice try, but once you are at the end, the only thing you ask yourself: Why?
Disney's hasty cash in on the Star Wars craze ends up hit-or-miss. Some of the sets and models look great, and others are laughable. The same can be said with the performances. Although Schell is great as the mad Doctor, the rest of the cast has countless embarrassing moments. The robot Vincent and his sharp-shooting Texan buddy are pretty sick, though.
More information at IMDb