... and since it was made in the 1960's, what else would you expect? This film is based on a 1951 novel called The Astronauts by Polish science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem, and it is much better than the current rating. That low rating may be because of some things I mention in the next paragraph. I am reviewing the dubbed version.
First some of the not so good stuff. This is unmistakably an early '60s era work and clumsily dubbed into English. By that I mean you can't escape the crudeness of some of the special effects and some of the dialogue can be a bit clunky. And besides some of the dated aspects of effects and dialogue, you have to try to forget what you already know about what Venus is really like.
Now for the good stuff. In its own right this was an ambitious movie. It's a story of pure space exploration or more particularly exploration of a strange new world. And the depiction of that world might be a touch crude but it is nonetheless imaginative and fascinating. An alien artifact is found on Earth and its origin is traced back to Venus. In the peaceful Earth of 1985(!!!) an international group of scientists and specialists man the advanced spaceship Cosmostrator to travel to Venus to investigate and possibly make contact with any alien intelligence to be found.
Some of the imaginative set designs and models could have been lifted right off the covers of some of the most romanticized scifi novels. I love the design of the Cosmostrator and the ship's control deck bears a striking conceptual similarity to the bridge of Star Trek's starship Enterprise yet the film came out six years before Star Trek aired on American television! The film also features an intelligent yet non humanoid robot called Omega. And the crew is genuinely interracial. The ship's commander is German or perhaps Polish. The communications specialist is African. The pilot is American. The ship's physician is a Japanese woman. And the two chief scientists are Indian and Chinese. Plus they all have authentic ethnic names. This is also an ensemble cast with no true prominent character. While Forbidden Planet is recognized for likely greatly influencing Gene Roddenberry in developing Star Trek, this film introduces ideas that Roddenberry couldn't have gotten from Forbidden Planet such as the interracial crew. And could Matt Jefferies have been influenced by this film when designing the Enterprise bridge? It makes you wonder.
I'm normally not keen on films that are dubbed into English, but I have to say that this film caught my attention right off and held me to the end. Because in the final assessment the good outweighs the bad.
On further thought, considering Hollywood's current obsession with remakes, here's a film with some good ideas that could could use a good polishing. The basic story is genuine deep space, far future space adventure. Oh, and change the locale and give it a better title.
First some of the not so good stuff. This is unmistakably an early '60s era work and clumsily dubbed into English. By that I mean you can't escape the crudeness of some of the special effects and some of the dialogue can be a bit clunky. And besides some of the dated aspects of effects and dialogue, you have to try to forget what you already know about what Venus is really like.
Now for the good stuff. In its own right this was an ambitious movie. It's a story of pure space exploration or more particularly exploration of a strange new world. And the depiction of that world might be a touch crude but it is nonetheless imaginative and fascinating. An alien artifact is found on Earth and its origin is traced back to Venus. In the peaceful Earth of 1985(!!!) an international group of scientists and specialists man the advanced spaceship Cosmostrator to travel to Venus to investigate and possibly make contact with any alien intelligence to be found.
Some of the imaginative set designs and models could have been lifted right off the covers of some of the most romanticized scifi novels. I love the design of the Cosmostrator and the ship's control deck bears a striking conceptual similarity to the bridge of Star Trek's starship Enterprise yet the film came out six years before Star Trek aired on American television! The film also features an intelligent yet non humanoid robot called Omega. And the crew is genuinely interracial. The ship's commander is German or perhaps Polish. The communications specialist is African. The pilot is American. The ship's physician is a Japanese woman. And the two chief scientists are Indian and Chinese. Plus they all have authentic ethnic names. This is also an ensemble cast with no true prominent character. While Forbidden Planet is recognized for likely greatly influencing Gene Roddenberry in developing Star Trek, this film introduces ideas that Roddenberry couldn't have gotten from Forbidden Planet such as the interracial crew. And could Matt Jefferies have been influenced by this film when designing the Enterprise bridge? It makes you wonder.
I'm normally not keen on films that are dubbed into English, but I have to say that this film caught my attention right off and held me to the end. Because in the final assessment the good outweighs the bad.
On further thought, considering Hollywood's current obsession with remakes, here's a film with some good ideas that could could use a good polishing. The basic story is genuine deep space, far future space adventure. Oh, and change the locale and give it a better title.