Guest Review #1: Forbidden Planet (1956)

Forbidden Planet is the first of many guest reviews to come. Bookie, my fellow horror fan...he he...loves old 50-60's sci-fi movies and has been begging to be published on my site. Begging. On hands and knees. Well maybe not. Actually, we both agreed a while back for him to write a review for his favorite genre, older sci-fi movies. They may not be considered horror..."at least from a certain point of view"...but oh well at least we're going to bring back memories of cheesy sci-fi movies. All of us remember...at least most of us...the dryer hose tubes spray painted black for robot arms, the generic model space ships dangling on a string to simulate space travel, the shiny metallic box-looking props with flashing lights to portray future technology and the horrible man-in-suit monsters that look like your grandmother's wardrobe mixed with feathers and tree leaves. Yeah we remember. Note: the scoring categories have been tweaked a little bit to adjust for the "lack of" slashings and TNA. So here we go and enjoy!

Bookie's Forbidden Planet Review:




Cast/Notable Credits:
Fred M. Wilcox (Director): Lassie Come Home (1943)

Walter Pidgeon (Dr. Morbius): Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961)

Anne Francis (Alta): The Rocketman (1954)

Leslie Nielson (Commander Adams): Airplane (1980), Prom Night, Creepshow (1982), The Naked Gun 1 (1988), 2 (1991), 3 (1994), Scary Movie 3 (2003) & 4 (2006)

Warren Stevens (Doc Ostrow): Cyborg 2087 (1966)

Robby the Robot (Himself)

Commander John J. Adams: "Nice climate you have here. High oxygen content."

Robby the Robot: "I seldom use it myself, sir. It promotes rust."

Plot: United Planets Cruiser C57-D (pictured right) is out to check on the colonists on the planet Altair-IV. Upon arrival, they find one colonist (Dr. Morbius) remaining, along with his young daughter (Alta), and the most kickass robot ever. Morbius informs Adams and his crew that everybody else was slaughtered by some invisible force. While Morbius shows Adams and company the ancient, and long dead, alien civilization he has been studying, the crew finds itself under attack from an unknown force. Are the aliens actually alive, or is there something far more dark and sinister at work? (Hint: the second one)

Direction (15/20 points):
Wilcox does a pretty good job with this one, considering his previous credits are basically 3 Lassie movies. Of course, this is one of the few 50’s sci-fi movies with a large budget thrown at it, and it shows in some of the effects, camera work, and such. It’s been argued that the pace of the film works against it, but really it serves to highlight the attention to detail that “Forbidden” takes, compared to most other genre films of the day.

Cast/Acting (18/20 points):
If you’re a Gen-Xer, like me, it might surprise you that Leslie Nielson was young once, and starred in serious roles. He does pretty well, as does Pidgeon, who fits the egotistic, intelligent scientist role perfectly. Anne Francis wears many short skirts (woo hoo!), and Robbie the Robot is the best mechanized creation to ever appear in movies (screw you, Johnny 5!)

Visual/Sound (20/20):
This is where the movie’s bread and butter lie. The visual effects are amazing for it’s time, especially considering the fact that many of the effects are drawn on the screen. We don’t spend much time in space, which still looks terrific compare to its peers, but once the ship lands on Altair, that’s when the visuals kick into Technicolor awesomeness. Everything from the green tint of the sky to the architecture of the alien Krell’s giant underground machine, gives an otherworldly feel to “Forbidden”, as does the electro-synthetic score, which was a first in movies, and fits well with the feel of “Forbidden”.

Story (18/20):
This is not your usual “blow up the monster” sci-fi. In fact, it’s loosely based on Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”. Most of the genre movies of this era pulled the “Is mankind moving to fast for it’s own good?” card, but this is really the first one to advance past the “gee whiz, nuclear power’s gonna destroy us all!” ethos and present the larger issue- When the human race takes a developmental step forward, we don’t leave our deepest problems behind.

Intangibles (Bookie Factor?) (19/20):
Whether “Forbidden Planet” is the best of 50’s sci-fi is up for argument; certainly it has to be in the discussion. While I wouldn’t put it at the top of the list, it’s top 5, and a glowing example of what could be done with science fiction with a budget and a good story. All science fiction fans should watch this movie.

3 Lessons I learned from “Forbidden Planet”:
1. Women love power, even if they’ve been completely sheltered their whole lives on some backwoods planet and never even seen another man except for daddy.

2. When the human mind expands beyond mere mortal thoughts, into the strata of transcendent reasoning, one cannot expect to hold back the sub-conscious monster that lurks within all men, and eventually the mind will lash out at all, leaving a wake of destruction in its trail. In other words, don’t f__k with Morbius.

3. Super Intelligent Robot + Alcoholic Space Cook = Comedy Gold!