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This Island Earth

This Island Earth

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: an absolut mega super science fiction film
Review: one of the most greatest fantasy science fiction films

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a great time and best wishes matthias

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great Gadget Movie
Review: Definitely a classic must-have for us older sci-fi buffs. I have it on VHS and would love to have a DVD version, but at normal prices. The plot is a little weak, but the acting and the effects are excellent. UNIVERSAL STUDIOS: Make some more DVDS!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: We Need A Second DVD Re-Release Please.
Review: For those who love to collect Sci Fi Movies. That unfortunatelly missed purchasing this Film on DVD. A second re-release chance is overdue, it would also, be well awaited.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: This Island Earth: Cheesy But Fun
Review: Seeing a science fiction film like THIS ISLAND EARTH is like taking a time warp back to the mid 1950s when it was released. I do not refer to the film technology of the day but rather to the encoded culture hardwired into the entire production as a subtext. By 1955, the Second World War had been over for only ten years, and film ticket buying Americans still thought of enemies in terms of storming the beaches at Tarawa and Normandy. A new enemy had appeared and he was the Red Menace. Sometimes this enemy looked like us and sometimes not. In THIS ISLAND EARTH, the bad guys were conquerors from Metaluna, who used deceit and trickery to lure nuclear scientists Cal Meachem (Rex Reason) and Ruth (Faith Domergue) to produce nuclear power to save their own planet from yet another warlike race, the Zaygons. The first half of the film is centered on the tight drama of the typical television actioner of the day. There is surprisingly little action or special effects as directors Joseph Newman and Jack Arnold set up the interaction between Reason, Domergue and Exeter (Jeff Morrow), the Metaluna representative on Earth. Reason and Domergue are your standard love interest but the Exeter character steals the show with his verbal quips and his evolving character. He begins as the typical slimy alien weasel whose only purpose is to be the spearhead of the next Red (oops-alien) invasion. As the film progresses, he becomes dramatically rounder, and hence more interesting. In the second half, directors Newman and Arnold place the film more squarely in the cheesy tradition of the space opera. There are explosions, bright lights, walking humanoid space bugs, and pyrotechnics that served as the immediate predecessor for FORBIDDEN PLANET that was to come out just one year later. The climax of the end of Metaluna and the return of the humans to earth even today is remarkably gripping, which proves once again that talent, competent acting, and a stirring sense of wonder and vision can elevate a merely cheesy concept into a movie that is fun to watch. Recommended.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: "There Very Much Like Your Earth Insects...Larger of Course"
Review: Unintentional comedy, or a harash reminder of the very real nuclear dangers awaiting us on our own little Island Earth? This film sends a dire message to us all whilst entertaining all sci-fi fans with it's vast sets, coustume designs, and powerful alien characters.

Executer is an alien with purpose...to save his homeworld he must transport them to Earth, he selects two human scientests as proof of humanity's intellegence and strength to overcome any challenge, but when his efforts to show that humans and Metalonins can live without the former being subjucated by the latter do not fair well, the race is on to flee a dying world...

Thrilling set pieces accompany this film, you'll cringe as Crow T. Robot accidently digs a hole through the Sattilite of Love...

...Oh sorry, wrong movie, well, wrong movie which poked fun at the movie I'm referring to, yes, whilst "This Island Earth" contains powerful set peices (the escape from Metaluna, the car chase, the confrotnation with Metalunas' Mu-Tants etc) the plot seems to suddenly, and sadly, come to a grinding halt, leaving you wanting more...

...Much like any film of that era, THAT is why it remains a classic.

Now say it with me:

"NORMAL VIEW, NORMAL VIEW, NORMAL VIEW, NORMAL VIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWW"

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: "Our Universe is vast, full of wonders..."
Review: In 1955, Joseph M. Newman directed the film adaptation of the 1952 novel "This Island Earth", which was written by sci-fi author Raymond F. Jones (1915-1994). Raymond F. Jones based the novel upon three short stories that were part of his "Thrilling Wonder Stories" that he wrote between 1949 and 1950. The stories were entitled "The Alien Machine," "The Shroud of Secrecy" and "The Greater Conflict" and centered on the main character of Dr. Cal Meacham, who was played by Rex Reason in the film. The story begins with an unusual flying incident with Cal as pilot, who then proceeds to his laboratory with his assistant Joe Wilson (Robert Nichols). After Cal asks Joe to order some new electronic parts, they receive an usual glass bead with two glass leads on either side, as well as a mysterious parts book. Not sure what the bead is, Cal & Joe start a series of electronic tests on the part to determine what it is. After destroying the part while testing, Cal is intrigued tells Joe to order more parts. Shortly thereafter, Cal & Joe receive numerous boxes of strange & bizarre parts with instructions to build a device called an interociter. Cal's curiosity encourages him to build the machine and upon activation, the interociter puts him in contact with an unusual looking man named Exeter (Jeff Morrow, 1907-1993), who demonstrates the interociter's full destructive power to Cal. In spite of Joe's misgivings, Cal decides to take up Exeter's invitation to join his team. Traveling in a windowless airplane, Cal arrives at a mansion where Exeter, several men that look like him, and several scientists that Cal knows are working. After two of the scientists, Dr. Ruth Adams (Faith Domergue, 1924-1999) & Steve Carlson (Russell Johnson, who is better known as "The Professor" on the 1964-1967 TV sitcom "Gilligan's Island"), explain what they know to Cal, they try to leave, but are intercepted by a large flying saucer. Cal & Ruth are captured by Exeter, who is the captain of the alien flying saucer, and takes them to his world of Metaluna where even more excitement awaits!

"This Island Earth" demonstrates that its author was clearly inspired by the then recent events of World War II and growing tensions between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union in the early years of the Cold War. For a mid-1950's sci-fi film, the special effects are pretty good, and the film is filled with most popular aspects of most sci-fi films of the era: scientists, aliens, mutants and flying saucers. However, the film does have several obvious flaws (including its very melodramatic acting), which made it the center of parody in the 1996 film "Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie". In spite of its flaws, "This Island Earth" is still quite entertaining on its own. It's certainly not a great film, but I give it an overall rating of 4 out of 5 stars for being a great, bad film, as well as being a cinematic classic. So sit back, grab a snack, and enjoy the campy entertainment of "This Island Earth"!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: you can buy "this insland erath"
Review: I love this movie. Sure, it's dated. But that's what gives it its charm. One should judge this film based on the standards of the time period it was made in. For the 1950s, this was a quality sci-fi film.

Some argue that it's a plot hole that the aliens would come to earth for scientists because their society is more advanced than ours. But that doesn't mean that everyone on their planet is a scientist. It's kind of like how on earth we have people who invent computer technology, we have those who build computers, and we have those who use them. The film makes it clear that there were no scientists left on their planet. Just like how not all humans are scientists, not all aliens are scientists either.

I also don't understand why some are complaining about the DVD quality. Sure, it's kind of grainy, but not really that bad for being an old film. The color was also fine in my opinion. For a version that hasn't been restored, it's in great condition. I do hope that they re-release this in a restored version though, as I would for any old film. And they just need to re-release it anyway since it's out of print and it's a popular old sci-fi film.

So overall, it's a good film for it's time, the DVD quality is decent for not being restored, and they need to print more copies because it's a popular title.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Classic Of Early Science Fiction
Review: It has taken me a few decades but I have finally seen the film This Island Earth (I had to buy it first). I must say that I was not disappointed by this well-crafted tale.

A physicist working on new power from uranium and the transmutation of elements to create more uranium, gets involved in a project of a far grander scale. Replacement parts are ordered for the lab but the parts that arrive seem far superior to anything that should be available. Then a catalogue of other equipment arrives and soon the lab is set on building a strange device.

The device is a communications console which puts the scientist in contact with a white-haired man seeking out talented scientists to tackle the issue of world-wide peace. The scientist joins a small think-tank of top researchers who are working on increasing the energy available from nuclear reactions. But it soon becomes apparent that all is not what it seems. The head of the project, and his assistant, are actually aliens. They are hoping that the human scientists can come up with a way to save their home planet.

The story then escalates to include the alien world and their plight at the hands of a second, and vicious, race of aliens. We learn of motives, deceits, and how far the peaceful will go to save their own home. Distrust and compassion struggle against one another until the film's conclusion.

This is not a typical B-movie of alien invasion. Unlike most of that type this film was not a quick project. Two and a half years were spent in the making so that the film is pretty well consistent within itself. The pacing of the plot's revelations is well handled and almost resembles a classic tale of A.E. van Vogt. This is definitely a film for fans of the great black and white science fiction films.


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