Why all the hate? This is a Sci-Fi Classic

I saw this movie in 1979 and thought it was poor at the time and recently watched it again and still feel the same way. For the time the special effects were decent but not exceptional. The storyline and acting made it almost unbearable to watch. This movie was made in the same era as Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Alien. It was not in the same class as any of these films then and has not held up like these films do today. As for why people hate VINcent (not to mention the rest of the robots), its because they are so cartoonish. Compare them to R2D2 & C3PO in Star Wars or to the android Ash in Alien. Those characters fit in with the storyline and were believable important characters. The robots in The Black Hole feel like goofy additions to the story, simply put in because the filmmaker felt like the audience wanted them. Jar Jar Binks in the 1999 Star Wars Episode one is the closest comparison that I can make to VINcent and the other robots in this film. Distracting, unnecessary and poorly executed, which is right in line with just about everything els about the film.

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Thanks for making this thread. I remember The Black Hole very fondly. It's like a scarier alternative to Star Wars, with the emphasis more on sci-fi than sci-fantasy. I loved the personalities of the "South Park" robots. Anthony Perkins was kind of like Ian Holm in Alien - there was something not quite right about his character and that created a lot of suspense. Maximilian Schell was scary and the Robot Maximilian was scary as hell.

The effects were great - period. Not just great for their time, but convincing enough to keep you in the story and that makes them timeless. Who cares about a few easy-to-ignore wires?

The final scene was a bit of a loose end, but not more so than 2001: A Space Odyssey, without wasting as much time getting there. And at least the music was very upbeat at the end, after lending much to the somber, eerie atmosphere throughout the rest of the film.

I just wish they'd show it on TV more often. I guess it must be on the Disney channel or something, because I haven't seen it in years on other networks.

I can't believe this movie has only a 5.9 rating. That says as much about the reliability of the ratings as some of the ridiculously high numbers other recent films have gathered.

I hated it as a kid, I was 6 and very excited due to how big of a Star Wars fan I was but this movie was so boring to me. I did like bits and pieces of it but looking back it was like ho-hum. Years go by and I watch it again and absolutely love it. It's one of my guilty pleasure movies today, watch it all the time. It is a bit slow so that's probably why I thought it was boring as a kid. If I had one complaint it would be the repetitive use of certain parts of the score in certain scenes. If that could be fixed that would be great, be cool if Barry could've composed a few extra pieces of music to be used in those scenes instead. But that's minor, I really don't care, I still love it all the same today. Funny how time can do that to someone.

It's a mess. A real case of too many cooks in the kitchen.

Shifts wildly back and forth between cute Star Wars style space opera to try to be serious science fiction in the tradition of 2001 (and doing that badly).

It's a real mess. I have only asked for my money back twice after seeing a movie, and this was one of them! ST:TMP, on the other hand, is one of my favorites of all time.

TBH is just such a random mishmash of stories and styles. Is it a thriller? Is it horror? Is it actually trying to be about the black hole? Hard to know because it is basically just everything thrown into a pot and allowed to overcook.

The movies a total mess. A clear case of too many cooks in the kitchen and studio interference. They weren't sure what kind of movie they were trying to make.

Which makes it kind of entertaining in a train wreck sort of way. And there are a couple of scenes that are actually effective. I would not call it a really good movie though. Not at all.

I really liked it. Funny how people just lock-on to the special effects as the reason why the movie sucked. And sure, it does lack special effects but I like the basic premise of the movie, which is "mad scientist in space". Where it lacks special effects it makes up for it with colorful characters and a pretty good story. At the time, people/scientists really weren't sure what black holes were. Some people thought they were portals to other dimensions and some thought they were links to other galaxies etc...etc..

We know a shitload about them today but at the time this film was made they were quite the mystery. I think that is another big reason why I liked it. It was an answer to the question of what are black holes. This along with making it like a scifi/horror/mystery which was something we really didn't see in this era of movie making. Classic film in my view...