9/10
Surprisingly Cohesive Outer Space Classic
12 September 2010
Warning: Spoilers
Remember-- this was 1966! No Computers. No CGI. EVERYTHING done by hand.

And for those of you who were old enough to see this on TV-- I say watch it again-- WHY? Because you very likely saw it in Black & White. And you saw it in the old square ratio TV-tube ratio. And probably worse-- you may have seen a video store VHStape repro with all the washed out colors, scratchy, jittery juddering that came with a haphazard transfer.

This movie was a true Screen production. And I recently streamed a clean video reproduction of this gem via Netflix to my Flatscreen and I was amazed at the quality of the entire show and taken in by the Movie itself.

One-- it's an ironic chuckle to see a movie purporting to be 30 years into the future- 1990! on my Flatscreen via the Internet.

Two- It's a Monster Movie. What Movie from the Age of Outer Space doesn't have One? And like all Monsters we know and love-- this one likes and prefers Blood. . .But Doesn't like unattached girlfriends.

The setup and the story is very cohesive. The science isn't too wild and doesn't have too much hand-wavium. This movies was intended as a SERIOUS SCIENTIFIC outer space entre to the screen. So excuse the fact that they travel to Mars inside of a few days instead of MONTHS, or the fact that they've intercepted a signal ". . .within our Galaxy, but from outside our solar system. . ."

The scenes from the alien planet are cool and definitely otherworldly. And the depiction of Mars is actually pretty realistic, considering what they knew back then.

And the 'Monster'. She's worth watching. She's acting totally and only with her glowing white eyes, Her writhing red lips and her white, white teeth. And she is enjoying herself! When I first saw this when I was kid, I thought I heard a scary bee-like buzzing whenever they focused on her lips-- but I guess that was a vacuum tube inside the TV Set and not the movie (Yes, That's how OLD I am!)

Pluses:

Woman are portrayed as Levelheaded and intelligent, though seems that the world of the future was only populated by Platinum Blondes.

It's a story about meeting an alien culture, albeit a bloodthirsty one. So it makes sense that after you find that your alien guest sleeping peacefully in her bunk with a delightful dab of blood on the corner of her lip after gorging on one of your crewmembers-- the scientist of the group talks about donating blood in shifts to keep her satisfied. And of course, you know that HE will be Next!

For the Nerds in us, they actually gave a nod to interplanetary travel restrictions on Time and Fuel. (despite the fact that the alien rocket crossed interstellar space in a matter of days-- but hey, they were a race of advanced Plant Vampires with Laser heat Vision! They're allowed to break the laws of physics)

Bring your friends over and watch this one after Midnight with chips and dip.
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