For a student film (Parker
worked on this during his time at the University of Colorado) it's
really professionally cast, the effects aren't altogether
sloppy, and the plot, though sporadic near the end, actually has a resounding action, and is historically accurate though stretched to involve dark comedy.
Sloppy work and avoidable errors are of course detrimental to the progress of the scientific process, and so is dishonesty of scientists, whether they are
really making things up or just less than fully honest on weaknesses in their
work and argumentation.