Forbidden Planet

1956 "Earthmen on a fabulous, peril-journey into outer space!"
7.5| 1h38m| G| en| More Info
Released: 03 May 1956 Released
Producted By: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

Starship C57D travels to planet Altair 4 in search of the crew of spaceship "Bellerophon," a scientific expedition that has been missing for 20 years, only to find themselves unwelcome by the expedition's lone survivor and warned of destruction by an invisible force if they don't turn back immediately.

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Reviews

Actuakers One of my all time favorites.
Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined
Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.
Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
hesse1797 I love this early science fiction adventure. The effects are well made for that time and the characters are really good written. Also before this film i only knew Leslie Nielsen for his naked gun films and i actually liked to see him in an serious role.
Ian (Flash Review)A space crew travels to planet Altair to investigate a mission that has lost contact over the last 20 years. Upon their arrival, they are greeted by a bulbous, cute and smart robot. He takes them to the remaining people of the original mission. Much of the crew is overly distracted by the presence of a young female and the man in charge would rather have them leave. While helping them to resupply their space ship, he shares much knowledge of his research, which includes an intellectual species called Krell. What have they discovered and will it pose a threat? The remainder of the movie is a mix of humor, thinking mind games and a bit of mystery. It's a fun piece of 50's Sci- Fi with some clever and corny styles, sets and machines. Pacing, cinematography and dialog could have been stronger.
Weiming Sheng It is just frustrating to think of what Forbidden Planet could have achieved with its stunning visuals. Some of the scenes are unprecedented with an epic scale, and Robbie feels like a real robot. However, the director's incapability of storytelling and character design makes this film a total mess. Now I am not saying the storytelling should be as the way it is now, since it is a rather old film; however, even Gone with the Wind, which is older than this film, uses more intricate storytelling techniques. Therefore time is not an excuse. Most of the story is presented verbally, and not in a good way. The entire Quinn history is narrated, by an actor who is quite terrible at reading lines. This is still okay though since we are constantly introduced to novelties of the Quinn visually and the film sure has some good set design and sound effects crew. When it comes to the third act, however, the film grows into a total dumpster. Acting goes phenomenally bad, along with some of the worst lines I have seen in a while. Dr. Morbius also died for no reason, at least I did not get how he died. And do not even mention the self-destruction system: pulling the disk and turning off the switch... Seriously? This seems a bit too easy and caution less for a SELF-DESTRUCTION sequence don't you think? Another problem is the character design. It is annoying to see how the director and writers seem to not care about the characters at all. The main character, the skipper dude, is so unlikable. I am not blaming the actor for this, though he is also terrible at the third act, but he is just so blunt and I cannot care less about him. And here is a thing: if the main character is characterless and unlikable, the audience automatically turns to someone who has some character, good or evil, and in this case Dr. Morbius, who, though being an egocentric murderer, still seems more of a human than the captain, and is therefore more relatable! As a matter of fact I just wanted the monster to kill everyone except for Morbius at the end, because all the other characters are just worthless and stupid. And then we come to Altaira. At first I thought maybe the daughter is so characterless because she is a robot, so that it is also kind of a twist, right? But no, she is just characterless because the writing is bad and lazy. Oh don't forget the romance. We get this cliché exotic girl who knows nothing about sexual experiences though she is a human and studies biology. That I can be sold if I have to, but her romance with Morbius? What? So this girl kisses one of the crew members, and the captain stops it, and the girl just falls in love with him? Just WHAT? Is there anything I missed out, or is this movie so lazy and bad that it just includes a love affair to sell tickets? I can see someone enjoying this. I enjoyed it a bit for Robbie's sake. I mean, can you believe it, the robot gets the most characterization in the entire film!
Thomas Drufke Believe it or not, there was a time when sci-fi films didn't have CGI filled action sequences, massive sets, or far-fetched plot twists and turns. Forbidden Planet was one of the first films to encompass all of the aforementioned things, albeit in an entirely different manner. I'm currently in the midst of trying to watch and re-watch as many sci- fi features as I can and Forbidden Planet happened to be the next on my ledger. This film can easily be considered a forgotten gem, but ironically, it's one of the films that paved the way for countless other films to be made. This was before Star Trek or Star Wars and yet, it still makes an impact on me after I've spent years of my life cherishing those properties. Without a large scale budget or expensive cast, Forbidden Planet works as a solid think piece. The film deals with a star ship crew from the 23rd century exploring a planet that was thought to be the landing place of a previous crew years earlier. Who or what they find is a complete mystery. For the most part, Forbidden Planet is a slow-burning film. There's little to no action, and any scene of injury or consequence often happens off-screen. In other words, the words spoken usually have a bigger impact than anything you see. With that said, the sets and painted backgrounds are easy on the eyes, especially considering this film was made over 60 years ago. But most of all, the ideas and themes explored here are impressive to say the least. It's always interesting to go back and watch films that you didn't realize had such a profound impact on the way a certain genre is made now. Forbidden Planet is certainly one of those.8.1/10