While I reviewed Hammer films last year, this year, we're focusing on what came from the other side of the pond. After the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, destroying both entire cities in the process, there was a great fear of what science could do. Even scarier devices could kill in an even larger radius. During the height of the Cold War, the entire public feared that the entire world could be reduced to rubble. So natually media depicted this scary scenario. No longer was the public scared of abandoned castles and tall looming dark figures, it was monsters and aliens that people were scared of at the time.
I had to start with the obligatory War of the Worlds review, because the original novel written by H.G. Wells in 1897 laid the foundation for alien invasion stories for all generations, such as having scientists, military, giant death machines, and doomsday scenarios. So there must have been a lot of pressure to make sure this adaptation doesn't fall under, I guess you can imagine that this movie has all the workings of the alien invasion genre and more, and I think it works well if it takes place in the 1950s instead of the 1890s, which makes sense if you think about it. Without giving away too much, all I can say is this is the quintessential alien invasion movie you must see, it captures what made the original novel spectacular, with amazing special effects at the time, solid acting, an incredibly ominous tone, and if I must say something, I think the main character, an extremely analytical science type, kinda reminds me a bit of myself sometimes.
Verdict:
For those not in the know, Ed Wood was the Tommy Wisaeu of the day, and if you don't know who Tommy Wisaeu is, you're not doing this internet thing right. Anyway, you would see that if you saw this movie, and yes, it's one of those so-bad-it's-good type of deals. In the movie, aliens have to stop humanity from creating a device so dangerous, it could destroy the entire universe. To get their attention, the aliens decided to raise the Earth's dead and turn them into zombies. Yeah, that's the plot. With a plot like that and cheesy special effects, you might be in for a goofy popcorn movie.
Verdict:
Some movies are so bad it's good, but not this one, it's so bad I come close to wanting to end it all. Seriously, when I watched this movie, I didn't see teenagers, I saw 40-ear-old men with makeup trying way too hard to fit in with teenagers. As if that wasn't bad enough, guess what the plot is, and yes, a group of 3 alien teenagers middle-aged teenagers plan to take over the Earth, but one of the space teen falls in love with an Earth girl which puts the others' plans in danger. See, I like space movies, even bad ones because you can laugh at them, but not romance movies because watching romance movies is like being waterboarded by Woody Allen's saliva from his mouth, especially if it's Teen Romance, the worst genre of fiction known to man, so naturally as you can see, combining a space movie with a teen romance movie is like going to bronycon without a pipe bomb: Bad Idea.
Verdict:
Not close to that of Plan 9, but still a fun popcorn movie to enjoy. The plot goes like this: some dude and a group of supermodels are stuck on an island inhabited by giant spiders, and they must escape. No it's not a porno, but I am guessing that it started out as one, but then some last minute decision by the studio made the editors cut out all the sex scenes, and released the movie to the public. Besides, I don't need a movie like this, I am always surrounded by hot women every single day.
Verdict:
Just like Plan 9, it's a typical alien invasion movie, unlike Plan 9, this one was actually pretty decent for it's day. The plot goes like this: a couple teenagers discover an alien blob, alien blob devours town, everyone must evacuate. Keep in mind, a lot of these movies are literally War of the Worlds of one variation or another, this movie is no exception, and instead of martians, we get a gelatinous being that does nothing but consume. Now my favorite part of the movie is the theater part, especially when you consider the fact that it was a real theater that the movie played in. Talk about breaking the 4th wall, the movie can get creative sometimes.
Verdict:
Pretty much one of those deep philosophical type of movies or something, an alien named Klaatu demands all the leaders of Earth meet up with him, and we all know what happens in 1951, they refuse and start attacking him. I know I might repeat myself when I say the special effects were good at the time, but hey, they were. This really does speak about our own aggression as a species and what could realistically happen when aliens do try and visit us. Hell, I imagine a scenario where we humans are the advanced civilization and we come to a primitive planet, and we get attacked.
Verdict:
The one thing that sets this movie apart from the rest is instead of aliens coming to take over Earth, they're actually coming to help us. A small planet is about to make a crash-course to Earth, and Starfish-like aliens must find a way to warn humanity before they get crushed by the gargantuan object. Yet another fun popcorn movie made from Japan (so the weebs can have fun with this one as well), I would recommend this late at night.
Verdict:
Well that does it for the atomic age. We went from gothic locale and vampires to modern settings and aliens, in order to reflect the world at the time. This was the product of the reality of the 1950s, a time when the Soviets and NASA lauched probes into space, and when both nations were in a tense arms race, and nuclear annihilation was a very real and deadly fear. Maybe since the atomic bomb, Americans and other first-world nations feared that science in general was going into powerful and deadly territory, and one musn't go too far lest they bring about the end of life as we know it. That's all for now, but hey, stick around next time for the gore-age.
BONUS:
Do you remember the first episode of Berserk that helped to establish that humans and monsters exist in the same world, that monsters control humans, and oppress them at will? Well imagine that, except it's not that, it's a shitty harem anime series. You know how I feel about these wastes of pixels, and this one is no exception, because all they did was replace girls with, uhh, monster girls, and that's it, nothing new added, not even entertaining, not even funny (it did try to be funny, but it ultimately failed), and the whole time I was watching this, I was hoping that The Black Swordsman would show up and slice that snake bitch in half with his big sword.
Verdict:
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