B—OR—ING! I’m not the biggest fan of sci-fi in that I don’t seek it out but I do like it when it’s well done and doesn’t break it’s own rules. Forbidden Planet is the sci-fi film that changed the genre—apparently taking it away from stupid scripts and bad special effects. I hope there aren’t any earlier sci-fi movies on the list because if this is the more “literate” script, I’m going to really hate the more poorly written ones. It’s not a good sign when less than 15 minutes into the movie, I’m online looking on IMDB to see the length (luckily a short 98 minutes), or that 1/3 of the way in, I wasn’t the least bit interested.
The plot is that a crew landed on the planet Altair to search for survivors of a crew that went there 20 years earlier. They find that there are no survivors except Dr. Edward Morbius (if that’s not a name for a villain, I don’t know what is). He has little explanation for how everyone but he and his wife died except that they were ripped limb from limb by some unknown force. His wife died of natural causes but not before they had a daughter, Altaira, who is, of course, blonde and hot. The commander, John J. Adams (a very young Leslie Nielson), and his two lieutenants along with other crewmembers (including a very young Richard Anderson) stay to investigate (despite not so veiled threats from Morbius). Meanwhile, one of the lieutenants tries to seduce the daughter with “old customs” without which “you can’t be in tip-top shape” like kisses to which she responds “is that all there is to it?” and “I haven’t noticed the least bit of stimulation” much to the chagrin of the commander (who, of course, later gets the girl). She has none of Earth humans’ scruples like wearing clothing while swimming or wearing an opaque dress longer than a shirt when visiting a ship full of lonely young men. And we can’t forget Robby the Robot who was later in everything from episodes of “Mork and Mindy,” “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,” and “Lost in Space” to Gremlins and Earth Girls Are Easy. A race of aliens, pre-dating humans, the Krells, have gone extinct from the planet. They were, of course, far far ahead of humans in terms of technology, logic, knowledge, intelligence, ethics, etc. They left behind a “plastic educator,” which measures and teaches knowledge and on whose scale the mere humans barely make a mark. But there’s a monster loose on the planet . . . . . an invisible monster (that is sometimes red sketchy) . . . . . . it has something to do with the id . . . . . . ooooooooh. Still not that interesting.
It’s also apparently based on The Tempest. I’d suggest you just grab your Riverside and read the play.
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