WAR BETWEEN THE PLANETS (1966)

WAR BETWEEN THE PLANETS (1966)

Tagline: The Earth is Scourged by Earthquakes and Disasters...until a space station discovers a fiery unknown planet heading for a collision to destroy all humanity.

(Sci-Fi, Suspense, The End Of The World As We Know It) [G]

What's new, helium-head?

In this one, a large planet-sized object is approaching Earth and causing earthquakes and all kinds of natural disasters. In an effort to stop this, scientists launch a rocket into space with a crew whose job it is to blow it up. When they get there, they realize this object is a living creature. 

First off this is another sci-fi flick out of Italy that was repackaged and dubbed as WAR BETWEEN THE PLANETS. Originally it was the 3rd movie in the Gamma One Quadrilogy titled “THE ERRANT PLANET”. A lot of the sets from this film were used in previous installments in the series, but this one had a different cast. One thing of note is that there is an explosion in this thing that is actually better than a certain explosion in the original version of STAR WARS. There I said it. No, this movie is not as good as STAR WARS, but I stand by the explosion comment. 

This movie is plagued by a couple of things. One is a melodramatic story between a couple of the characters that never really gets resolved in the dialog. Another issue is that this thing is just loaded with bad actors. The dubbing actually helps which is rare, but that’s what is going on here. I think the other issue is that for most of this movie there just isn’t really all that much going on. I don’t want to say it was boring, but you could watch the first 10 minutes and the last 10 minutes and pretty much not miss anything. We also don’t really ever get a “WAR BETWEEN THE PLANETS” as the title promises which is always a bit disappointing. 

What I liked about this movie was the ending. The thing they are up against is actually a pretty cool concept. I also now know where the movie ARMAGEDDON basically stole its main plot from. That movie just does it hundreds of times better. Yes, hundreds. Anyway, I also loved the sets in this. A lot of this thing reminded me of what we’d get in a TOHO film and any time you do that; you are going to tug at my nostalgic heartstrings. 

If there is any semi-decent acting here, that is coming from Giacomo Rossi Stuart (THE LAST MAN ON EARTH) as Commander Rod Jackson and Ombretta Colli (GLADIATOR OF ROME) as Lt. Terry Sanchez. Everyone else, I just feel like they kind of mailed this one in. The design work on the space suits was also just pretty mediocre as was the rocket design. 

The score is decent and I did like the director's style overall, so overall I don’t think this is nearly as bad as some people are saying, but the pacing really throws it off and it seems like a flick with this title should have been a lot more interesting than it was. 

This one gets a 3 out of 7, but I did actually like the concepts and the ending. No one needs to add this to their streaming queue or watch list unless they are just trying to see every 1960 sci-fi movie like I am. 

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