First Spaceship on Venus [Der schweigende Stern] (1960)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

It seems that the 50s and 60s produced a few good movies.  Those decades, unfortunately, also produced a lot of really bad movies.  I don’t know if standards were lower or if it was simply that easy to get a movie to market.  I submit into evidence First Spaceship on Venus.  The movie takes place in 1985 and starts with an alien device from the explosion in Tunguska, which was originally thought to be a meteorite.  Instead, it’s some sort of memory device that scientists have somehow determined that came from Venus.  It seems that it was part of some advanced probe.

Since there’s been no contact from Venus in the intervening decades, an expedition is assembled and sent to our sister planet.  No one can figure out why Venus has been silent nor does anyone know what to expect once the expedition gets there, but they must go.  Once they get there, it looks like Venus is desolate.  The atmosphere is thick and unbreathable.  There are no signs of life, but there are structures and things that look like large insects, but turn out to be information-storage devices.

Right before landing on Venus, the language expert decoded what’s on the alien device.  It turns out that the Venusians were planning on wiping out all life on Earth as a precursor to colonization.  The expedition can’t contact Earth; they must either carry on expecting unfriendly aliens or go home without any answers.  The expedition does go to Venus, but soon realizes that everyone is in mortal danger.  Thus, they decide to get off the planet with all deliberate speed.

I’ll admit that the story was very good.  It was based on a book by Stanislaw Lem, who also wrote the book that was turned into Solaris.  Regrettably, the actual movie wasn’t made that well.  A lot of time was spent getting the expedition together and a lot more time was spent actually getting to Venus.  The trip between planets really seemed to drag.  Yes, the people spent time either doing work or getting along, but I thought a lot of it could have been cut out.  Not a lot of time was actually spent on Venus looking around, which could definitely have been developed.

Apparently, there were different versions released.  I got this as part of a ten-movie set; the information on the back of the box gives the runtime as 78 minutes and the year of release as 1959.  According to IMDb, it does look like there were longer versions released in different countries, which leaves me wondering what was left out.

The dubbing was bad, but not distracting.  From what I can tell, it was originally released in German and translated into English.  This explains why the dubbing looks decent in some areas, but totally off in others.  I didn’t notice it in most scenes, but there were a few where it was extremely evident that it was a dub.

The special effects were nothing special.  There were a few scenes on Venus where we had gasses floating around.  If you look closely, it looks like a static image was used.  You don’t notice the gas swirling at all.  The transfer also left a lot to be desired.  The movie is in color, but there were a lot of segments that had a heavy blue tint, almost to where they appeared to be in black and white.

I’ve come to not expect much of science-fiction movies from the 50s.  I’ve found that it tends to be kind of hokey.  The world of 1985 that this movie has shows an international team of people working together.  There’s a black man and a Japanese woman as part of the expedition, which I suppose isn’t impossible.  (After all, we do have an international space station.)

Still, much of the science seems simple by today’s standards.  The ship has artificial gravity and everything, but no mention is made of the fact that Venus’s atmosphere is much denser than ours.  Also, the ending was relatively weak.  I expected some great moral revelation or something.  Instead, when the ship gets back to Earth, it’s just some sad faces and a few words on what happened.

I’ll admit that my perspective is a bit skewed.  This is part of a ten-film set released by St. Clair Vision where the company had to pay little or nothing, meaning that this is the bottom of the barrel.  Still, there had to be better movies out there.  I’d like to think that if I was making this movie, I’d have done better.

IMDb page

First Spaceship on Venus - Internet Archive

The Phantom Planet (1961)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

Warning:  I’m going to be giving away a lot of details in this review.  If you don’t want to know every last detail, you might want to stop reading now.



In the future, it always seems like we have some sort of space travel.  In some cases, we’ve explored the galaxy.  In others, we’re just starting out.  In the Phantom Planet, the year is 1980 and the United States Air Force has a lunar base and is sending out people to have a look around.  When several ships go missing, the commanding officer pulls Capt. Frank Chapman off the Mars mission to go out looking for answers.

He and his navigator, Lt. Ray Makonnen, follow the flight plan exactly, but Chapman has a feeling that sticking to the exact course won’t do anything.  So, they deviate and are promptly hit by a meteor shower.  When they go out to fix the damage, they don’t use any sort of tether. Makonnen is able to save Chapman, but pays the ultimate price when he’s sent drifting off into space.

Due to an oxygen leak, Chapman passes out.  He awakens to find Makonnen gone and the ship being pulled into a large asteroid.  He makes a recording for posterity as he lands on the surface.  After crashing, he passes out only to awaken to some really small people.  We’re talking smaller than his helmet people.  After breathing in their air, Chapman shrinks to their size.

In an effort to defend himself, Chapman assaults one of the people.  He’s tried and convicted only to be handed down the horrible sentence of being able to walk freely among the native population.  He’s told that he can’t go back.  When he presses the issue, he’s told that his spacecraft has been sent off into space.

Rhetton is the name of the planet and the people of Rhetton are very advanced compared to Earth.  The reason they’re so small is that the atoms in their world have electrons with tighter orbits, meaning that everything is more compressed.  (I think this is supposed to explain why Chapman appears to shed so much mass.)  They have the ability to control gravity, which lets them move the planet around at will.  They also have the ability to synthesize food, which explains how they can live on a barren planet.  (It doesn’t explain how they evolved there, though.)

Chapman is given the choice of two women to marry.  Both Zetha and Liara are attractive women.  Zetha, however, is mute.  Thus, she can’t flirt with him making Liara the seemingly better choice.  Liara’s main drawback is that she’s also the object of affection of Herron.  Herron challenges Chapman to a duel to the death.  Chapman wins, but spares Herron’s life.

As a sign of gratitude, Herron offers to help Chapman to escape.  Yes, his ship is missing, but his suit is still around.  If he breathes in some oxygen from his suit’s tank, he’ll return to normal size.  The real challenge is getting the Rhetton close enough to the lunar base that someone notices and comes to rescue Chapman.  Before that can happen, the Solarites attack.  It seems that they’ve noticed Rhetton’s advanced technology and have wanted it ever since.  Will the people of Rhetton defeat the Solarites?  Will Chapman get back to Earth?  You’ll have to watch to find out.

Overall, the movie was pretty good.  Being a product of 1961, there are a few things that people will notice when watching it today.  First, the project is handled by the Air Force.  From what I understand, the Air Force was a frontrunner for the space program until NASA was formed in 1958.  I’m wondering why the Air Force was used.  Even if it was based on a book or short story, it wouldn’t have been that hard to change a few words.  (I suppose it’s possible that the program is run by NASA and staffed by the Air Force.)

One thing that I found on IMDb is a goof wherein Chapman’s ship, when landing on Rhetton, is pointed sideways and going full blast.  This would normally defy what we know of physics not to mention that a ship probably wouldn’t land this way.  It occurred to me that Chapman didn’t really want to land on the planet.  Instead, the people on Rhetton pulled him in against his will.  The sideways-pointing rocket was probably more of an attempt to escape.  The real question is why the people of Rhetton didn’t just deflect his ship and send him flying off in some other direction.

Another issue, also pointed out on IMDb, is that there’s seemingly normal gravity when Chapman and Makonnen go out to fix the ship.  Either they used magnetic boots (which they didn’t seem to) or they should have used a tether.  I know that they’ve mastered gravity on Rhetton, so I think it’s safe to assume that they can manipulate the planet’s gravity to suit their needs.  As for the lunar base and the ship, I’m assuming that since we’ve mastered space flight, we’ve also managed to create artificial gravity.

The acting was a little wooden throughout most of the movie.  The aliens can get away with it, being that they seem to live in a relatively sterile society.  There’s no mention of what they do for fun.  I didn’t see any night clubs or malls or anything.  You’d think that Chapman would get bored and ask if there was a movie theater or something.

While the Solarite ships looked pretty fake, the Solarite costume looked pretty decent.  It did seem like the actor in the suit was having problems as if his visibility was severely limited.  (Notice that the actor hesitated when walking down a few steps.  I don’t think this was the character being cautious.)  Many of the caves also looked like they were made from Styrofoam.  I have to wonder if people of the time accepted this as cutting-edge special effects.

I don’t know that I’d go out of my way to rent this.  If you get it as part of a larger set, like I did, or if it comes on TV, I’d say watch it.  There are worse ways to spend 82 minutes.  The only thing of any interest here is that clips from the movie were used for a La Quinta advertisement.  You may remember the series of ads where La Quinta took a few clips and dubbed over them.  If you’ve seen the ads, you should recognize the scene they used immediately. 

IMDb page

La Quinta commercial uses MST3000 movie Phantom Planet

Dune (1984)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

There are some movies that you watch and you can understand.  There are some movies that require a little explanation or background information.  Then, there are some movies that you watch and have no idea what the f*#$ is going on.  Dune is the third kind of movie.

I had wanted to watch it because it was one of those movies that everyone kept talking about as being so great and everything.  When it came on one of the cable movie channels, I decided to record it.  Now, let me state that I saw the shorter version of the movie.  There is a longer version, which I would assume explains more.  Both versions are based on Frank Herbert’s book of the same name.  This is probably why I didn’t understand most of it and I accept this.

That being said, this incarnation was a bit confusing.  It takes place about 8000-9000 years in the future.  Humanity has spread throughout the galaxy and has the ability to travel very quickly.  What makes this possible is a substance called Spice.  (Spice also has mind-altering capabilities, as well.)  Spice is grown on only a planet called Arrakis (a.k.a. Dune) and whoever controls that planet controls pretty much everything.

The movie starts with some worm-like creature confronting the Emperor about something that the Emperor is plotting.  The worm gets the Emperor to admit everything, allowing him to go through with his plan if only he kills Paul for him.  Paul is the son of the Duke and his house is set to take over Dune.  It’s not clear at first why an assassination of Paul would be necessary, but there’s a prophecy that Paul will liberate the people of Dune.

The movie seems to drag at first, with Paul traveling to Dune from his home planet.  There’s a lot going on, including battle training.  There’s also a sisterhood, of which Paul’s mother was a member.  This sisterhood, Bene Gesserit, manipulates bloodlines.  It seems that Paul was supposed to be Paulette, but his mother decided to have a boy.  (Apparently, they can just do that sort of stuff.)  I wasn’t exactly clear on why it was important that Paul be a girl rather than the next child.  I’m assuming that it was covered in more detail in the book.

When Paul gets to Dune, there’s a power struggle.  His house takes over the planet, but the old house manages to get it back.  Paul knows that there’s some connection between the giant worms and Spice, but he can’t put his finger on it.  There were a lot of voiceovers used as exposition.  (I’m wondering if this was an easy way to introduce information from the book.)

At the very least, most of the acting was good.  (You may recognize Sting, Dean Stockewll and Patrick Stewart.)  I wish I could say the same for the rest of the movie.  The film quality looked like something out of the early 80s.  The music and special effects were of similar quality.  In some areas, the plot seemed to drag and in others, it seemed to be rushed.  Some characters were important, but had little screen time or explanation.  It also seemed like the movie bounced around in some places.

I nearly shut it off several times.  I had little idea what was going on most of the time.  Even after reading reviews and going to IMDb, I’m still a little confused.  I don’t really even know how others understood the movie.  I’m wondering if I should look into the longer version or if I should just read the book. 

IMDb page

Dune (1984) Official Trailer #1 - Science Fiction Movie HD

Voices of a Distant Star

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.


Every so often, I go for something completely different. I saw this movie on NetFlix and decided to give it a try, mostly because it’s only thirty minutes long. (Since I’m working now, I don’t have a lot of time for movies.) I figured that I would see what the movie was about.

The plot is very easy to explain. A girl, Mikako, goes off to defend Earth from an invading army, leaving a boyfriend, Noboru, behind. (Yes, she’s a girl; she’s only 15, if I recall.) The only way that she can communicate with him is through text messages on her cell phone. As she goes further out, it takes longer for the messages to reach Earth. Eventually, she’s 8 light years away, meaning that it takes 8 years for the messages to get back.

The story focused on the relationship between the two main characters. (In fact, there were no other human characters.) There was little or no explanation as to how the messages were transmitted or how the Mikako even charges her phone. There also seems to be some debate as to whether both characters are aging at the same rate or if Mikako and the other ships are goinjg near the speed of light, allowing her to age more slowly. (It was never mentioned either way.)

Makoto Shinkai is the man behind the movie. He animated the entire movie on his computer, doing some of the voice work at first just to see how it came out. (This was included on the DVD, but is practically the same as the feature if you’re using the dubbing.) The visual style is a little different, but you get used to it. Shinkai is good. He has one other movie, which I’ll be renting.

I ended up using the English voice track, which I seem to be doing a lot of lately. I think that subtitles would have taken my attention away from the animation too much. I would have rather been able to watch the movie without looking down too much. As for the music, that was great also. I even liked the music on the menus, which is rare for a DVD. The music in the movie was subdued, but worked well.

As for extras, the only thing worth noting is a short called “She and Her Cat”, which is told from the perspective of a cat that is adopted by a woman. There’s also the director’s cut of the movie, but as I said earlier, it doesn’t mean much if you don’t understand Japanese.

I’d definitely recommend this movie to anyone. Even if you don’t like animation, it’s only thirty minutes. What have you got to lose?


Voices of a Distant Star Trailer