The Iron Giant (1999) - Bird's heavily themed family animation debut

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A stylish and retro-cool poster for Brad Bird's The Iron Giant

1950s Maine, the United States: Boy Hogarth is mad about sci-fi magazines during the atomic scare period, when a giant robot from space lands in the forest near his home ...

 

The Iron Giant is written by Tim McCanlies (North Shore (1987)), Brent Forrester (Love (2016-18)) and great Montanan filmmaker, debuting co-writer/director Brad Bird (Ratatouille (2007)), loosely adapted from Ted Hughes' (The Hawk in the Rain (1957)) The Iron Man (1968).

Wonderful, inspired and deeply colorful and vivid animation, which is endowed with a keen comical eye and excellent voice performances from Eli Marienthal (American Pie (1999)), Jennifer Aniston (We're the Millers (2013)), Harry Connick Jr. (New in Town (2009)), and others.

The story's political angle, - weapon are evil and the state and authorities are deceitful, ignorant and hungry for wars, - is a bit too pregnant for a family film. The Iron Giant is nevertheless still a very special and delightful picture.

 

Related posts:

Brad Bird: 2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) - Cruise and Bird's phenomenal action spectacle 
The Incredibles (2004) - Unwanted animation action slam-dunk

 

Watch a trailer for the movie here

 

Cost: 50 mil. $

Box office: 31.7 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 0.63 times its cost)

[The Iron Giant premiered 31 July (USA) and runs 87 minutes. Bird was inspired by the murder of his sister, shot dead by her estranged husband, because Hughes' novel was a comforting tale for his children following their mother, poet Sylvia Plath's suicide. Production took place in Los Angeles, California. The film opened #9 to a 5.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, steadily declining from there to end with a 23.1 mil. $ (72.9 % of the total gross) gross. The flop was attributed to Warner Bros. lacking marketing campaign, apparently stemming from lack of faith in the film due to their failure with the preceding year's big animation Quest for Camelot (1998). The film won a BAFTA, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. IMDb's users have rated it in at the site's Top 250 at #239, sitting between Network (1976) and The Handmaiden (2016). Bird returned with The Incredibles (2004). Marienthal returned in 3 TV credits prior to his theatrical return in American Pie 2 (2001). The Iron Giant is certified fresh at 96 % at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Iron Giant?

I, Robot (2004) or, Robot Trouble!

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Will Smith looks extremely sour in a leather jacket on this metal-toned poster for Alex Proyas' I, Robot

Chicago 2035: A policeman starts investigating the death of an inventor who was central in the now widespread use of robots, and the implications become dangerous.

 

I, Robot is written by Akiva Goldsman (The Dark Tower (2017)) and Jeff Vintar (Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)) and directed by Alex Proyas (Spirits of the Air: Gremlins of the Clouds (1987)).

It is ironic that a film which displays the cold and eerie nature of robots itself seems robotic. Will Smith (Men in Black II (2002)) is the politically correct figurehead on this action picture that's so chockful of clichés that is almost hurts to watch it.

The vision of the future offered here is exceedingly optimistic, - the energy aspect alone is a joke. The performances and execution are generally sexless and lacking in flavor, as well as thoroughly cleansed of any semblance of movie magic. The quality that I, Robot does have going for it are the impressively created CG robots, which are frightening.

 

Related posts:

 

Alex Proyas: 1994 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

The Crow (1994) - Proyas' unpleasant, exploitative, shameless and ugly turkey 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 120 mil. $

Box office: 353.1 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 2.94 times its cost)

[I, Robot premiered 7 July (Los Angeles) and runs 115 minutes. Smith was paid 28 mil. $ for his performance in the film. Shooting took place from May - October 2003 in British Columbia, including in Vancouver, in California and in Chicago, Illinois. The film opened #1 to a 52.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weekends in the top 5 (#2-#4), grossing 144.8 mil. $ (41 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 33.8 mil. $ (9.6 %) and the UK with 32.9 mil. $ (9.3 %). The film was nominated for the Best Visual Effects Oscar, lost to Spider-Man 2, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 2/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Proyas returned with Fad Gadget by Frank Tovey (2006, video) and theatrically with Knowing (2009). Smith returned with a voice performance in Shark Tale (2004), Club Oscar (2005, short) and theatrically and physically in Hitch (2005). I, Robot is rotten at 57 % with a 6.0/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of I, Robot?

Metropolis/メトロポリス (Metoroporisu) (2001) - Rintaro's ambitious robo-anime a matter of taste

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Colorful cyberpunk sci-fi animation is promised on this poster for Rintaro's Metropolis

Complications arising concerned with the evolution of robots lead a future mega-city to a complete breakdown.

Metropolis is written by Katsihuro Ôtomo (Stink Bomb/Saishu Heiki (1995, short)), based on the same-titled 1949 manga by Osama Tezuka (Astro Boy (1952-68)), and directed by Rintaro (Galaxy Express 999/Ginga tetsudô Three-Nine (1979)).
The inspiration from Fritz Lang's eponymous 1927 masterpiece (Metropolis (1927)) is apparent, though this anime evolves into a radically different film, especially due to its visual ambition, which divides audiences: Some will find the detailed, staccato-moving, fast-edited style with obvious mixing of traditional animation and CGI highly attractive, but others like myself find it deeply stressful and at times almost intolerable to watch. It is a matter of taste.
The style overwhelms the experience for me. Metropolis certainly is a noisy and special, doom-romanticizing film.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Reportedly 1 bil. ¥, approximately 15 mil. $
Box office: Uncertain, perhaps around 15.25 mil. $
= Uncertain, but looks like a huge flop (looks to have returned 1.01 times its cost)
[Metropolis premiered 26 May (Japan) and runs 113 minutes. Production reportedly lasted 5 years. The film opened #40 to an 84k $ first weekend in 9 theaters in North America, its peak weekend there, where it widened to 16 theaters and grossed 722k $. The world gross listed at Box Office Mojo is 4 mil. $. On Wikipedia the film is listed to have grossed 750 mil. ¥ in Japan, approximately 11.25 mil. $. Put together the gross comes to 15.25 mil. $. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to 4 notches higher than this one. Metropolis is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Metropolis?

Forbidden Planet (1956) or, Freud in Outer Space!

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This wholly amazing landscape poster for Fred M. Wilcox's Forbidden Planet is just one of the remarkable posters that were made for it

In 2200, a spaceship full of randy men are en route to a mysterious planet, where Dr. Morbius and his beautiful daughter have lived alone for 20 years. But with the frightening knowledge of the Krell, a highly evolved native species extinct some 200,000 years, the fiendish subconscious of the doctor has manifested itself in a homicidal monster!

There are both laughable and thought-provoking aspects of Forbidden Planet. - An example of the latter is its theme of being able to create merely by thought.
Walter Pidgeon (Hit the Deck (1955)) is good as the inquisitive doctor, while Leslie Nielsen (Columbo (1971-75)) is a bit daft as the captain.
Forbidden Planet is considered a landmark science fiction film for its portrayal of humans traveling in a faster-than-light spaceship of their own making, taking place exclusively in space and on an alien planet, having a robot as an actual character in it, as well as being the first to use an exclusively electronic score. It is written by Cyril Hume (Ransom! (1956)), based on a story by Irving Block (Kronos (1957)) and Allen Adler (The Giant Behemoth (1959)), inspired by William Shakespeare's The Tempest (1610/11), and directed by Fred M. Wilcox (I Passed for White (1960)).

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 1.9 mil. $
Box office: 2.7 mil. $
= Big flop
[Forbidden Planet premiered 23 March (USA) and runs 98 minutes. The original 1952 screenplay by Adler and Block was titled Fatal Planet and took place on Mercury in 1976. Shooting took place exclusively in in-door sets in Los Angeles. Robby the Robot cost a steep 125k $ to create, about 7 % of the film's budget, and was later used in The Twilight Zone, along with other costume and props from the film. It was sold at an auction in 2017 for 5.3 mil. $, making it the most valuable movie prop ever sold at an auction, beating a 2013 sale of the Maltese falcon from The Maltese Falcon (1941). The film made 1.5 mil. $ in North America and 1.2 mil. $ abroad, only making it a big flop by Film Excess' standards, but reportedly it earned a handsome 210k $ profit. It was re-released on a children's matinee bill in 1972 in a version with 6 minutes cut out. It was nominated for an Oscar for Best Special Effects, which it lost to The Ten Commandments. Pidgeon returned in These Wilder Years (1956), Nielsen in The Vagabond King (1956) and Anne Francis in The Rack (1956). Wilcox returned with I Passed for White (1960). Forbidden Planet is certified fresh at 98 % with an 8.2 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Forbidden Planet?

Blade Runner 2049 (2017) - Villeneuve's speculative sci-fi sequel is fascinating but flawed

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+ Most Expensive Flop of the Year

A silver fox and a burning-hot younger protagonist share this elegant poster for Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049

Blade Runner 2049 is the sequel to Ridley Scott's great sci-fi classic Blade Runner (1982), both based on Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968). It is written by Hampton Fancher (Blade Runner) and Michael Green (Logan (2017)) and directed by Canadian master filmmaker Denis Villeneuve (Arrival (2016)).

In Los Angeles in 2049, a modern blade runner is retiring old replicants. But his latest job makes him remember what he expects is a false, imprinted childhood memory and discover a secret that indicates that the borders between robotic and biological life are not carved in stone.

The new Blade Runner comes highly anticipated, mostly because Villeneuve proved himself as a sci-fi filmmaker to reckon with last year with masterpiece Arrival. The new film film stays true to the cold, disturbing urban environment from the first film; the look of Scott's Californian metropolis is recreated and furthered with the latest technology very artfully, while the persistent rain, gloom and neon lights are kept.
Exciting concepts about life, identity, technology, sexuality and borders between humans and artificial intelligence are brought to vivid life. Ryan Gosling (Drive (2011)) is the blade runner hero here, and he is worshiped in countless long shots, not unlike in Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive and masterpiece Only God Forgive (2013), but somehow he is less compelling here as a very feeling machine. The film for a long while is good science-fiction with a nostalgic feel to it for those long familiar with the first film. Ana de Armas (Faraday (2013)) and Mackenzie Davis (Freaks of Nature (2015)) are good as Gosling's girlfriend, who is, in fact, a highly sophisticated program, and a prostitute, who enables their lovemaking scene, probably the film's most interesting, (although it finishes before the real action starts.)
Blade Runner 2049 is very long, and only in the last, very long act does Harrison Ford (Witness (1985)) show up. Apparently he has been holed up in an abandoned Las Vegas hotel with a possibly fake dog for some of the many years since we last saw him in this universe. The ambitious and complex story begins to crumble for me at this juncture. SPOILER There is a subtext which is that Ford may be Gosling's father, but the two seem to investigate this by beating each other up to a hologram Elvis performance that is quite unpleasant, if you are sentimental about the King. This development also brings to mind Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015), (also about Ford's troubled, absent fatherhood of a powerful male), and it seems too much in some way. I exited the movie world here and began to look in at it from the outside, questioning whether it was really a good idea at all to go back to the Blade Runner universe, and also whether or not reenlisting Ford so many years after was really necessary.
SPOILER Sylvia Hoeks (The Girl and Death (2012)) is Terminator-like as a mysterious replicant power woman, who seems to like Gosling for much of the film, but who in the end wants him dead. I find the third act confusing overall, and didn't much enjoy Gosling's graphic drowning of Hoeks either.
Jared Leto (Suicide Squad (2016)) is Niander Wallace, a disturbing replicant-producing industrialist, (think nightmarish Jeff Bezos of the future), who personifies the religious aspects of Blade Runner 2049, which are uniformly negative and fixed upon humanity itself.
Blade Runner 2049 is carefully and impressively made, as cold as the first film but far from as original, good or compelling. It puts its audience in a permanent speculative position that is fascinating to some degree but didn't quite make the cut for me. A great part of it is its ethereal, diverse score by Benjamin Wallfisch (Air Bound (2015)) and Hans Zimmer (Rango (2011)).

Related posts:

Blade Runner (1982) - R. Scott's visual extravaganza, great SF
Denis Villeneuve: 2017 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess
Arrival (2016) - Villeneuve, Heisserer and Adams head sensational sci-fi wonder
Incendies (2010) - Villeneuve's dreary and depressing, wildly overrated drama

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 150 mil. $
Box office: 159.8 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say
[Blade Runner 2049 premiered 3 October (Los Angeles) and runs 163 minutes. One development began in 1999. Ridley and brother Tony Scott started working on one in 2007, seeking Christopher Nolan to direct. Shooting took place from July - November 2016 in Hungary, including Budapest, Spain, Iceland, Mexico and in Nevada. The film opened #1 to a disappointing 32.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it fell to #2 in its second week. The film is opening in Japan and China on 27 October, and it will need very solid runs there and continued audiences globally to break even. - It is likely to become a flop theatrically, just like the first Blade Runner was. Blade Runner 2049 is certified fresh at 88 % with an 8.2 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Blade Runner 2049?

Terminator Genisys (2015) - Franchise: Terminated!

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+ 2nd Worst Movie of the Year

The main poster for Alan Taylor's Terminator Genisys presents Arnold Schwarzenegger and the fresh stars in a heated environment

Terminator 5 has landed, and what can we expect from it? - Not much, if we remember the terrible last entry, Terminator Salvation (2009), but Genisys' wowing trailer and the return of the mighty Arnold Schwarzenegger (Eraser (1996)) in the title role (after one film's absence) made me hope that a decent, new sequel had been devised.

Right hand to the resistance leader John Connor, Kyle Reese, is sent back to 1984 to protect Sarah Connor from the machines. But the past has changed. And so has the future!

After a lengthy, narrated beginning, Genisys takes us back to scenes from The Terminator (1984), which have been recreated, without Bill Paxton (Titanic (1997)), but now with two CGI-Arnolds battling, - which is truly not a very promising sight.
Byung-hun Lee (I Saw the Devil (2010)) is disappointingly quickly used and discarded again as a metallic villain, a throwback to Robert Patrick's bad guy in the franchise's best, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991).
In between action scenes, the characters try to answer each other's questions and clear up the soon overwhelmingly complicated and obscure plot. Genisys' story seems to erase everything that has happened in the Terminator universe previously! For fans this is, naturally, problematic. Especially because the Genisys plot doesn't seem to make much sense on its own. The past has been 'reset', we are informed. So has the future. ... SPOILER In the end, the terminator melts away as is customary, only to return a moment later, letting us know that he was merely 'upgraded.' - This is the level of the logics in Genisys, a foot-long baloney sandwich if I ever saw one.
It is written by Laeta Kalogridis (Alexander (2004)) and Patrick Lussier (Drive Angry (2011)), and directed by Alan Taylor (Thor: The Dark World (2013)).

Arnold Schwarzenegger seems to have unnaturally thick hair on this poster for Alan Taylor's Terminator Genisys

The nonsensical plot is accompanied by some, at their best, momentarily thrilling action scenes. But if compared to the action of Terminator, Terminator 2 or Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), the CGI-heavy action of Genisys falls way short of really impressing.
Jason Clarke (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)), the clenched-jaw actor who is fast losing my patience with him, here portrays John Connor, SPOILER who is now, suddenly, a seriously bad guy! I never understood why, and it was very displeasing to have that happen inexplicably to a character that has stood as a smart-mouthed hero in my mind for about two decades.
Next major problem: Jai Courtney (Jack Reacher (2012)) as Kyle Reese. This Australian meatball looks fine, but he has all the charisma of an ATM. Courtney is perhaps the least compelling shooting star actor around today. And for some reason, they cast him for a major part in Genisys.
British Emilia Clarke (Dom Hemmingway (2013)), on the other hand, brings a lot of zest and emotions to the Sara Connor character, and acquits herself well, although Linda Hamilton's shoes are considerable to try to fill out.
J. K. Simmons (Whiplash (2014)) is a breath of fresh, at times funny air, and Schwarzenegger still has charm and a very strong screen presence. - But he is at times made to look even older than he is, (which is soon 68!), with grey hair, (yes, robots age in Genisys ...) And you know an action movie has a problem, when you start to feel bad for its bad-ass hero, because he is an old guy who gets continually and viciously beaten up.
Terminator 5 brings nearly nothing new to the table; it instead clutters everything up that the franchise has created so far. The one new thing it develops, the Genisys system, a kind of connecting program that mirrors Skynet and wants to take over the planet, seems like it could have been interesting but is the one thing that doesn't get much attention.
- The Terminator universe is terminated!

Related posts:

2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]

2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch the great trailer for the film here

Cost: 155 mil. $
Box office: 229.5 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say
[Genisys has underwhelmed in North America, where it debuted #3, behind Jurassic World and Inside Out, with a 42.4 mil. $ opening weekend and received generally bad reviews. But the film made #1 collectively abroad for one weekend. It doesn't look like it will heave enough tickets home to become a hit though, which also makes it less likely that two more proposed films will materialize.]

What do you think of Terminator Genisys?
Do you want to see more Terminator in the future, or do you, like Film Excess, consider the franchise terminated?

Interstellar (2014) - Nolan heads to space in opulent, exciting epic

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+ Best Science Fiction Movie of the Year

A hyper-charged, dizzying poster for Christopher Nolan's Interstellar

Interstellar is the big space opera of 2014, and we may note that this and last year have been good years in this respect: Gravity (2013) captivated the world last year and was a tremendous survival space thriller ride, while Interstellar this year is a grander envisioned, thrilling epic. I didn't, unfortunately, experience it in IMAX, which it is made for (co-writer/director Christopher Nolan (Inception (2010)) is an avid fan of the format), but I highly recommend you to catch it in IMAX if in any way possible,  because the scope of the exploration in the film indeed begs for this huge format.

In a dystopic future, mankind is threatened by dust storms and hunger as crops mysteriously die out, and a former NASA astronaut is put back into service after receiving a mysterious clue from the beyond. Together with a small crew, he must go through a wormhole to search out new planets for the future of the human race.

Nolan cements his position as one of the world's most exciting, ambitious filmmakers here: Co-writing with his brother Jonathan Nolan (The Dark Knight (2008)), the two have here created a journey into space that transports its audience with a measure of awe, because they seem to spin their narrative with a physicist's integrity. Indeed the events of Interstellar are well-researched and generally realistic, and the seriousness and lack of condescension of the film is liberating and noteworthy. The adventure suffers from some overlength, though, and the plot becomes increasingly hard to understand, not unlike other Nolan titles like Memento (2000) and his best to date, Inception (2010). The ending is the weakest part of the film, as Interstellar seems to want us to bawl out in praise, because it decides to tie its beginning to its end:
SPOILER Never one to include religion or God in his pictures or world-view, Nolan nonetheless here gets metaphysical, as lead Matthew McConaughey (Mud (2012)) acts as a sort of time-space-crossing ghost in a black hole-induced space of alternate universes ad infinitum, which I found highly unpleasant and downright nightmarish. McConaughey comes out as a near Superman, as he survives this, and made me remember my similar, unsatisfied sentiment about Nolan's closing of  of The Dark Knight Rises (2012), in which Batman, incredibly, seems to die, - but then didn't anyway ... Interstellar is still very exciting, like a modern, unique meeting of Giant (1956) and Hud (1963) with Donnie Darko (2001) and Armageddon (1998), which stays riveting throughout in significant part due to Hans Zimmer's (Inception) terrific score. There's also a cool robot (called TARS) and stunning, believable visuals. - Especially the scenes of space flight strike one with the wonder and mind-numbing realities of space, which also links the film directly to Stanley Kubrick's classic 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).
A high-point of Interstellar concerns our space mission's visit on the icy planet that a Dr. Mann (Matt Damon (Elysium (2013)) has lived on by himself for years. Casting Damon against McConaughey in this part of the film, whose face has puffed up a bit with age, while McConaughey's has become more taut and emaciated (perhaps because of work and straining roles the last few years), is a masterstroke. This whole chapter of Interstellar was incredible. McConaughey is generally a great lead for the film, although his always cool cleverness can be a bit thick to some at times.
The film has an impressive cast, although I think Michael Caine (Children of Men (2006)) seems more like a benign superintendent than an ingenious professor, and Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty (2012)) seemed to struggle a bit with the abstractness of her character's reality, (which is understandable.)
Interstellar makes people gasp out, sniffle, laugh, scream, urge to the people on the screen and ask questions. It is a voyage that will no doubt thrill little boys and girls the world over to pursue the sciences. - Don't miss it!

Related posts:

Christopher Nolan: 2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V] 

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]  
The Dark Knight Rises (2012) or, Batman and the Storm, Darkness, Anarchy, Evil, Depression
Batman Begins (2005) or, Modern, Dark, Smooth Batman

 Watch the awesome trailer for the film here

Cost: 165 mil. $
Box office: 204.1 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say
[Interstellar had a good American debut (#2 with 47.5 mil. $ behind Disney's Big Hero 6 with 56.2 mil. $). It has reached 200 mil. $ worldwide in just 6 days, and will rely on a longer, strong run (similar to Gravity's last year) to turn a profit due to its high budget.]

What do you think of Interstellar?

First Spaceship on Venus (1960) or, East Block Gravity

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A poster for Kurt Maetzig's First Spaceship on Venus

Today's review is of a rather obscure movie, the East-German/Polish First Spaceship on Venus, an adaptation of a Stanislaw Lem novel called The Astronauts. Pole Lem also wrote the novel basis for Solaris (1972 and 2002) and many other adaptations, but Venus was the first film based on his writings.
Venus takes place in the then sfuture of 1985, in which a spool from another planet is found at a spaceship crash site in the Siberian dessert. An international mission is assembled to journey to Venus to learn more about this civilization. But what they find is disheartening yet eye-opening.
Venus is a curious film, told in bountiful narration, and - on Earth - by a blond reporter. The small crew of the space mission includes an African, two apparently Japanese, some Caucasians and what appears an Indian, the highest standing professor of them all, who works tirelessly to figure out the message on the spool. A natural center for the men on-board is the female voyager Dr. Ogimura (Yoko Tani (The Savage Innocents (1960)), who is described as a "good woman". But - save for a brief indication of nakedness in the beginning, (to get into the spacesuit), Venus doesn't hold any hanky-panky or jokes of any kind. The very scientific team are strictly interested in facts and a sober examination of them, - making them a bit dull as characters.
But then Venus is, first and last, science fiction, and actually pretty good sci-fi: The science talk is mostly convincing, and the suits and sets are well-made. The effects include; zero gravity moving around and laughing, a robot brought along to make initial tests on Venus, the strange landscape of Venus and a kind of black, dangerous porridge that follows them there, as they escape. Several crew members die in the dramatic mission, including the sympathetic and courageous African, who is simply left on Venus.
Venus is an enjoyable science fiction curiosity, sometimes involuntarily comic, as when SPOILER one male crew member dies because the robot drives into his stomach.

Hardly 'Mankind's Most Incredible Journey!' - but Kurt Maetzig's First Spaceship on Venus is worth watching

The details:

German director of Venus Kurt Maetzig had previously done communistic propaganda for the USSR, the so-called 'socialist realism'. Instances of Soviet propaganda is said to flourish some in the long version of Venus, which runs 93 minutes. Unfortunately, I was only able to see the shortened US version of 78 minutes.
The technique of Venus is pretty rough; it continuously uses jump cuts; perhaps due to time restraints, or clearly defined, alternative theory, opposition to Hollywood-film-making or just plain incompetence.
Still, the film is very interesting from a historical standpoint, although many questions about it cannot be answered now, like the one above. Another question would be about the internationality of the crew and particularly the inclusion of the almost pitch black African as a total equal on the mission; was this done as a provocation to the still blatantly racist US, as idealism on the film-maker's part, or is it taken from Lem's novel?
The film shows SPOILER a scary example of the effects of atomic explosions, as the inhabitants of Venus have annihilated themselves, only leaving, literally, their shadows. In this way, Venus seems to carry an anti-A-bomb-message. - Something that was also heavily prevalent in the American 'atomic-scare'-sci-fi-movies of the 50sand 60s. 
Mostly the film seems deeply humanistic in its viewpoint, but then again, perhaps the original version is different. So many questions.
In any case, this Forbidden Planet (1956)-reminiscent, minor science fiction gem is worth searching out for anyone interested in SF, history and 60s space exploration.

Related review:

Stanislaw Lem: Solaris (2002) - A suffering space question mark

Watch a short trailer for the film here

Budget: Unknown
Box office: Unknown - but it apparently sold more than 4 mil. tickets in East Germany, so there's a good chance it was a hit
= Unknown

What do you think of First Spaceship on Venus?
Can you answer any of the many questions from my review?
Have you seen other Stanislaw Lem-adaptations and if so, how were they?

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) - Spielberg's robot fairy tale surges with both heart and mind

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A curiosity-sparking, very dark poster for Steven Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence

In the late 22nd century, a family whose son is in an induced coma start to live with the prototype of a robot boy instead. But when one day their real son can be revived, their family structure experiences upheaval, until they ultimately decide to get rid of the robot boy, who as a result is sent on a far-reaching journey in search of his own maker.

I have watched A.I. on several occasions. One of them was a screening I arranged for a bunch of kids, many of whom did not understand English. That was the time I realized that A.I. is not only a great film but truly a cinema masterpiece. That stuffy, hot room full of tired kids fell almost completely silent within the first 10 minutes and then stayed that way for the rest of the almost 2½ hour film, transfixed by its story. It is related with visual mastery (cinematography by Janusz Kaminski (Schindler's List (1993))) that goes way beyond its words. - Every single one of those kids were totally enthralled in A.I., in the destiny of the robot boy David, the tragic loss of his family that he suffers through and his journey towards being a real boy. It is a Pinocchio-like story, partly sci-fi, partly fairy tale, of amazing strength and universal appeal. It is very melancholic, incredibly beautiful - and an irrepressible emotional rollercoaster. For me, it beats Disney's Pinocchio (1940) by many lengths.
Filled with ethics concerning robots, creation of life and artificial intelligence, Biblical references, a perfect score by John Williams (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)) and led by a formidable performance by Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth Sense (1999)) as David, A.I. engages both minds and hearts from start to finish. It is hard and bold in its portrayal of the facts of life, but never hopeless.
The film was originally a project of Stanley Kubrick's, which he developed for two decades without feeling that the technology had come far enough yet to tell the story. Kubrick handed the project over to Ohioan master filmmaker Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan (1998)) four years prior to his death, and Kubrick couldn't possibly have made it a better movie than Spielberg has achieved here. A.I., his 19th feature, is one of his absolute best, and a unique cinematic masterpiece.
It is written by Spielberg, with Ian Watson (EarthPulse (2002-03), documentary TV-series) contributing story elements, based on Brian Aldiss' (The Rain Will Stop (2000)) short story Super-Toys Last All Summer Long (1969).

Related posts:

Steven Spielberg: War Horse (2011) - Spielberg visits WWI with problematic horse drama
Super 8 (2011) - Abrams' nostalgic family crowdpleaser (producer)

Top 10: Best future-set movies 

The 2000s in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Band of Brothers - TV mini-series (2001) - WWII-sacrifice and -comradeship portrayed with skill and integrity (producer)
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) - Spielberg's greatest accomplishment
Amistad (1997) or, Must... Free... Slaves! 
Twilight Zone The Movie (1983) - Fear takes many forms in tragedy-struck anthology
1941 (1979) - Spielberg's bizarre 'comedy spectacular' sinks like a rock  
Duel (1971) - Spielberg's truck terror is ideal afternoon fare

A collage of some of the images from Steven Spielberg's A.I.

Watch the official international trailer for the film here

Cost: 100 mil. $
Box office: 235.9 mil. $
= Minor flop (returned 2.35 times its cost)
[A.I. Artificial Intelligence premiered 26 June and runs 146 minutes. Kubrick reportedly began developing the film in the late 1970s and contacted Spielberg in the mid-1980s about it. Shooting took place from August - November 2000 in Los Angeles, California and in Oregon. The film opened #1 to a 29.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another week in the top 5 (#3) and grossed 78.6 mil. $ (33.3 % of the total gross). Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 11.6 mil. $ (4.9 %) and France with 8 mil. $ (3.4 %). The film was nominated for 2 Oscars: Best Score, lost to Howard Shore for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and Best Visual Effects, also lost to the first LOTR movie. A.I. was also nominated for 3 Golden Globes, a BAFTA, a Grammy and scores of other awards, making it onto the National Board of Review's Top 10 list of the year. Roger Ebert awarded it 4/4 stars, in line with the review here, while many other especially American critics teared it most undeservedly to shreds. Spielberg returned with Minority Report (2002). Osment returned in Family Guy (2000-01) and theatrically in Edges of the Lord (2001), Jude Law (Vox Lux (2018)) in Road to Perdition (2002). A.I. Artificial Intelligence is certified fresh at 73 % with a 6.6/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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