Capt. Mondo's World o' Mondo-ness

Movie Time at the Science Centre
Earlier in the week I renewed our family membership at the Science Centre. I also decided to go for the "Gold" upgrade, mainly because it lets us into the IMAX movies for free, a feature that will pay for itself after a few visits. I can write off some percentage of it as a taxable donation, and on the whole I feel pretty good about "donating" to places such as the Science Centre, the ROM and similar institutions. I undoubtedly made the telemarketer who called on behalf of the OSC very happy that I was so easy to upgrade.

So I decided to take advantage of things and took the girls to the Science Centre so that we could see what IMAX films they had to offer. As it turns out, they had two of them — Mysteries of the Nile and The Human Body — so we went to see both, interspersed with a visit to the rest of the Science Centre.

The first one we saw was Mysteries of the Nile, which is basically an awkward marketing name thrown at a project which actually has very little to do with any sort of "mystery". The movie is not about the ancient Egyptians as you might think with a title like that (reinforced by the image on the poster of the Pyramids) but of a white-water boating expedition that aimed to be the first to travel successfully travel from the headwaters of the Nile in Ethiopia to the delta region at Alexandria. Ultimately a fun movie, despite the misleading title and the leaden attempts to give it some relevancy by referencing some concocted "mystery" ("go look it up in a book!" is what I felt like saying a couple of times). What saves it are the large vistas of east-central Africa, the architecture of the Nubian pyramids or of Luxor that in IMAX format gives a real impression as to size and scale. Of course the short thrill of the bandit or crocodile sequence didn’t hurt either.

At the end of the movie we headed to the bottom floor to have lunch, but found the line extending outside. Luckily I had plenty of change and I just got some milk-drinks for the girls and a pop for myself. It was sunny and mild outside, so we went outdoors, and found a picnic table far enough away from the smoking parents hovering by the entranceway.

We managed to kill another hour in and outside of the Centre, and then headed back for movie of the day #2: The Human Body. This was obviously in support of the Body Worlds 2 exhibit, and it was a good movie. Made by the BBC, it explores the inner workings (literally) of an English family, peering into how our bodies work and how life is created (which later spurred some questions around the dinner table by Vanessa). A good film, though without the spectacle or "splash" of the first.

Headed home at the movie's conclusion. A good day out. Hope they change the movies again at the OSC soon so we have an excuse to head back.