ROBOT MONSTER (1953)
Tagline - Moon monsters launch attack against Earth! How can
science meet the menace of astral assassins? New Science Fiction Thrills!
This is one of those movies that ends up on almost every TOP
50, worst movies ever lists. Reviews of the movie actually sadly drove its
director to attempt suicide according to some reports. The movie is basically
about aliens that destroy all but 6 people on planet earth basically just
because they are better and furrier than us. They also want to cause
earthquakes that allow dinosaurs to take over the earth. Yeah, you read that
right. Ro-Man is our main bad alien and everyone else just sort of lives in his
world. With a budget that had to be just about $140.00 back then, the last 6
(none of whom we actually like) people on earth try and save mankind from total
annihilation. They are going to do it with science which is almost always the
cause of problems in almost every sci-fi movie. Oh and on top of that these
creatures which are basically apes with metal diving-like helmets and TV
antenna’s on them are from the moon. Only this is the moon of planet Ro-Man
apparently not our moon. Thank goodness because that would have been
ridiculous.
Anyway… after being a jerk and basically treating the lead actress (Alice) like total crap she decides to make out with him during the middle of all this and for some damn reason there is a wedding involved, which kind of indicates how thin the plot was to begin with.
This all takes place somewhere in CA and there quite
literally is not a single shot of a full building in the entire movie (at least
not intentionally). It’s all filmed near beat up walls with no roof in
daylight. Acting wise in spite of some people ripping on this thing I think the
kid (Gregory Moffett) actually does pretty decent and ended up landing a role
in the Spider Man TV series. Alice (Claudia Barrett) is also just fine and even
after this stays in acting for another 11 years. There is a ton written about this thing and I
won’t go into every crazy detail but wow (it literally includes stock footage from
other movies (Lost Continent and One Million BC) as part of the plot). If you
are looking for a monument of terrible 50’s sci-fi, you have come to the right
place. Oddly this one does have a few
redeeming qualities. 1. It is seemingly based on sci-fi comics of era given the
title sequence. 2. The ending might be a cop out to some, for me it made this
more like a giant poorly written episode of the twilight zone. In this case, it’s
better than the alternative.
Best Line - We Ro-Mans obtain our strength from the planet
Ro-Man, relayed from individual energizers. – Ro-Man
I gotta give this one a 2 out of 7 even for a guy who likes whacky stuff like this.
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