Movie Review: Journey to the Seventh Planet (1962)
Synopsis: In the year 2001, world peace has been achieved, and mankind has begun exploring the galaxy. This includes an international team of astronauts arriving at the seventh planet, Uranus. Expecting to find a frozen wasteland, they instead land in a forested area that looks a lot like home. They soon realize the planet is inhabited by an alien creature capable of bringing their memories, fantasies and fears to life.
Who's in it? The movie stars John Agar, Carl Ottosen, Greta Thyssen, Louis Miehe-Renard and Ann Smyrner.
Review: I came across Journey to the Seventh Planet while unsuccessfully looking for another movie. While I'm always a bit skeptical of science fiction films from this era, the plot did sound interesting, so I added it to my library and watched it this morning. As it turns out, it wasn't too bad.
Obviously, the idea of there being world peace and humans exploring the galaxy by 2001 was both wishful thinking and does date the movie a bit as a result. Plus, as far as special effects go, they were pretty much what you would expect from a film made 60+ years ago - not the worst I've seen but clearly working within the limitations of the era.
That said, the plot of the movie is actually pretty intriguing. The alien creature hiding within the depths of Uranus had the power to see into and manipulate the astronaut's minds. This meant it could confuse them and always knew what they were thinking (making it a lot more difficult for them to secretly put together a plan to defeat it). On top of it, all it had to do was turn off the artificially warm climate it was creating for them, and they would freeze to death instantly.
Despite the serious plot, I did find myself laughing a bit too at just how careless the supposedly smart scientists were while on Uranus. This included everything from randomly touching and tasting the stuff they discovered to not taking the added precaution of walking around outside without their spacesuits even after they realized how easily it would be for the alien to kill them without the suits.
The biggest chuckle came from the men letting their libidos take over whenever they encountered the random women the alien was producing and sending their way. I know the women were attractive and they had (presumably) spent a long time in space but that was a lot of red flags being ignored, even after they realized the women weren't real.
My only real complaint about the movie was the final battle. Based on everything we were told about the alien and its powers; it ended up being a little too easy to beat. In fact, I kept waiting for some sort of surprise twist at the end (like the alien possessing one of their bodies) to explain why it put up so little of a fight and was surprised when there wasn't one.
Final Opinion: This is a good movie that worked within the limitations of when it was made and ended up being entertaining science fiction film, even if some of the ways it was entertaining probably weren't intentional.
My Grade: B
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Here are some reviews of other movies from 1962:
Movie Review: The Day Mars Invaded Earth (1962)
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