Forbidden Planet Reaction!
Added 2025-12-01 19:05:30 +0000 UTC
Comments
Those films listed are damn good ones. Seen some of Honey West, and what I have seen, that also is very damn good. This film, as I’ve heard described, was like 2001 before 2001. Its influence is rather strongly apparent, particularly with Star Trek. Can see Spielberg having that response about being disappointed in not getting to see the Krell. Could see cases either way on that one. Good touch with the name in your book by the way. A major draw is to see our good old doctor who was smart enough to have lasagna rather than the steak or fish, to go with the one you allowed yourself. Like you say, tough to appreciate from a modern perspective the joke. They did good casting with Liam Neeson, even so, there is a magic to Leslie with that humor. Good call knowing I’d have the few references, so you went with the dramatic parts like when it’s very fortunate that Gene Hackman was there to help lead people out after the disaster with the Poseidon happened. The argument “It was a different time.” is there at times, but it only goes so far. Usually, you acknowledge that when, like you say, you more or less accept that stuff above a certain age is probably going to have a certain amount of outdated sexual and racial views. How much and how bad is the question mark. Here it does go WAY past that, and like Star Trek, it’s worse here because it pulls you out of it given when it takes place in the allegedly utopic future. Like Jess noted in Turnabout Intruder. It really is awful here. Jess did have the look that would make you use that great Inigo Montoya line. (Assuming too that Billie even IS the Doctor, even if only temporarily.) Just a real Creepshow of a time when Adams victim blamed. To the limited credit, Altaira does get to shut down Jerry hard while still getting her own enjoyment out of him. And the discomfort, if any, just washes away, or we just don’t focus on it any further. Yeah, the whole thing of she has no grasp, nor frame of reference with consent, which severely rankles. Particularly when Jerry does the forceful kissing, and the lead up to that, I’m rolling my eyes and groaning like when we watch Kirk make the moves on Star Trek. I swear when I do that, I probably look and sound like the Bug in the Edgar Suit reacting to when J mistakes Laurel trying to give a warning as a come on, and flirts back. Couldn’t think of a good Mrs. Miniver reference, so good that you made the nod to the film. Walter is very, very good. One of those twists that would have been harder to foresee back then compared to now. It still works rather well with the presentation of it. Good Prom Night nod. The depressingly common ending back then, I know how Jess expressed displeasure at it when it was done poorly in the original series of Star Trek. People back then did hang on to that type of ending far longer than they should have. Love how there’s the consensus view that Jess would latch onto Robby. Truly is refreshing that despite what the poster might have led you to believe, plus other science fiction, he’s perfectly benevolent. I know you’ve spoken about how you say that there are times when you concede that looking at some films, books, shows, with the aroace mind, that it’s hard to gauge the romance plotlines. As I self described in the reaction to The Apartment, I’m a hopeless romantic, (who likes to think he has at least some common sense,) and yeah, this just doesn’t work. At all. It bombs about as hard as Sawdust and Mildew. (Then again, supposedly that’s a best picture winner as the men from Bryce Porterhouse didn’t correct Phil Donahue when he said, “It’s the bomb!” opening the envelope.) The Fugitive had some insanely impressive guest stars. And in the mean time, Adams can also stop and help Glenn Ford get his son back, whilst taking comfort in the fact that he’s not played by Mel Gibson in the remake. This film is one that needs to be seen for the influence and impact that it’s had. Which will bring us to next month, where as they say, “Children of the night. What a MESS they make.” Oh, I am going to have SO much fun with the next reaction in this series.
Thomas Corp
2025-12-02 02:24:13 +0000 UTCThis is easily Anne Francis' best known role, but she appeared in several more great films like Bad Day at Black Rock, Funny Girl, and Blackboard Jungle. Plus her far before its time detective show Honey West, where she got to spit out one-liners and deliver body slams to the bad guys in between hanging out with her pet ocelot. The whole thing's up on Youtube and well worth a look. This film was a pioneer in a lot of ways, with a much more serious and cerebral story than most science fiction of the time, presented in full color and with massive sets that were actually the result of the art department cheating, trusting that the money people would only find out how vastly overbudget they were going when the work was already done. As you can easily guess, Gene Roddenberry named it as a big inspiration for Star Trek, and Spielberg was a fan since seeing it on release at age 10 (though he admitted at that age, he was very disappointed to never actually see the Krell after his interest was piqued by that door shape). And I swiped the name Krell for the futuristic city in The Place Beyond. The major draw nowadays is a near-unrecognizably young Leslie Nielson as Shirley, er, Adams. Okay, that's the one I allowed myself, as one thing that has a lot of trouble now coming across in Airplane is the whole joke with his character is supposed to be that we're seeing a respected dramatic actor bringing all his usual gravitas to lame puns. And I well knew Thomas would likely already have his comment up by the time I was able to watch this one, so I decided to instead go with a bunch of his dramatic roles. Like, it's too bad he wasn't as on ball as he was with the tiger while captaining the Poseidon. Though that does bring me to the worst part of all this, and one of those things that makes me very embarrassed how much stuff like this I just blindly accepted as a young teen when I first saw it. Now, I'm the kind of person who isn't impressed at all by the argument "It was a different time," though I do feel that, much like Ice-T in SVU, there's a certain amount of outdated sexual and racial views that you simply have to sort of get used to if you're going to watch movies this old. And the treatment Alta gets throughout the whole movie blows way past that. You very much had me thinking here "That is the sound of ultimate suffering. My heart made that sound when I saw Billie Piper become the Doctor. Jess makes it now." The part that hurts the most is when we're teased that Adams is going to stand up for her, only to victim-blame her for everything and promptly start putting the moves on her himself, giving the distinct impression that he was always just obsessed with her and might even bury her and Jerry on the shore someday. At my absolute most lenient, I'll note that she gets to shut down Jerry hard while still getting her own enjoyment out of him, and never seems like she's being forced into something that makes her uncomfortable, but we're still left watching everyone take advantage of this girl who clearly knows nothing about the rules of consent. At least the movie has the decency for this to have nothing to do with anything else going on until the last ten minutes, so it's easy to enjoy all the good stuff around it. Among that good stuff is Mr. Miniver himself, Walter Pidgeon, who gets all the big showy speeches while keeping you guessing about just what he's up to. The final reveal is maybe a bit easy to guess these days, but in the '50s the idea of the subconscious mind was still a niche enough subject that it could be played like this. And Adams definitely wouldn't have been able to handle it with the number done on his id by what happened with his kids at that Prom. Though it bothers me a lot that they end up destroying the whole planet, rather than just saying "Well, it all works great, just don't be careless like I was," and assuring this was all for nothing. That's been a depressingly common ending to these kinds of stories for way longer than it should have been. At least they saved Robby, who everyone knew you'd latch onto, and I must say it's pretty refreshing that he never turns evil or even seems to develop his own mind at all, just playing completely fair all the way through with how he's introduced. And of course it has to come along with Adams and Alta declaring their totally unearned undying love, which it's nice to see a lot of people these days seem to agree with me on rather than having to chalk it up to my asexual mind just not getting it. At least until he's willing to let another guy take the fall for a murder he did until Richard Kimble guilts him into confessing (first episode of that show I ever saw, and boy did the guest list in the opening credits excite me). Despite how badly some of it has aged, it's still a movie everyone should watch just for how inspirational it's been to the whole genre, and if nothing else you get to gaze in awe at those sets. And it should give you a pretty good context for the level of quality people had come to expect from sci-fi movies when you get to next month's entry. I just want to tell you both good luck, we're all counting on you.
Ryan
2025-12-02 01:15:03 +0000 UTCI was going to comment on "The Rescue". Did anyone else have the false memory, as I did, that you thought Alta would be incensed at Commander Adams shooting the tiger - in the same way that Vicki was when Barbara shot "Sandy"?
Andrew Vignaux
2025-12-02 00:05:50 +0000 UTC"The Tempest" in Space.... Doctor Who stories taking direct inspiration from this movie's concepts and/or visuals: The Rescue, Planet of Evil, The Brain of Morbius(!), The Face of Evil... also Daleks' Master Plan (the invisible Visians' footprints) and Planet of the Daleks (invisible Spiridon exploring the ship).
Frank Shailes
2025-12-01 23:45:18 +0000 UTC
