Rating: 
Summary: Gorgeous Image DVD makes me lust for the original cut
Review: As evidenced by the extremely mixed reviews here, this East German/Polish co-production (filmed in 1959, released here in 1962) seems to be a love-it-or-hate-it affair. Personally, I'm in the lovers' camp, although if you've never seen First Spaceship on Venus you deserve some fair warning. According to IMDb, the East German version of this runs 130 minutes, the Polish (?) version 93. If either figure is reliable there's anywhere from 15 to 52 minutes missing from the 78-minute U.S. version, so there are definitely continuity problems. The English script is somewhat muddled and seems to repeat or contradict itself at times, several subplots have obviously been trimmed or junked entirely, and the English dubbing is particularly bad, with virtually no attempt to match dialogue with people's mouth movements. Also somewhat distracting is the heavy use of stock music cues (particularly the familiar Universal "Wolf Man" theme), although a few almost dissonant passages sound like they might be snippets of the original score. Between the heavy editing, rewriting, and dubbing it's really impossible to evaluate the original screenplay, but even with only the skeleton of SF legend Stanislaw Lem's original novel that's left, it's still more conceptually challenging than the average 1950s space opera (compare the roughly contemporary War of the Satellites, Missile to the Moon, or even a "classic" such as This Island Earth). In brief, a Venus mission is launched to determine the source of an ominous message encoded into a metallic spool unearthed by archaeologists. As noted by others, there are a number of ideas that presage later, more famous SF productions, including Star Trek (the racially and sexually diverse flight crew and Moon base personnel), 2001: A Space Odyssey (the robot chess game; the EVA repair mission; the buried artifact that's actually a communications device), and Star Wars (the 'cute' R2D2-like robot), as well as a few bits more typical of cheap 50s sci-fi (the meteor shower, the shipboard romance). If you can bear with the roughness of the script and dialogue you will be rewarded with some very creative and generally superior (for the time) production design, optical and sound effects, and miniature/model work. The Earth laboratories, Moon base, and spaceship all look cool enough, and that artifact makes some crazy sounds, but when they get to Venus, things really kick into gear. There are strange sponge-like trees, lots of swirling smoke and fog, and wispy neon-colored gelatinous clouds flying around. The astronauts discover some high-tech Venusian "ruins," are attacked by black-and-red lava-like blob creatures, and ultimately discover the extinct Venusians' forbidding secret. The absence of big Hollywood bucks does show at times (the metal "bugs" are laughably cheesy, even for 1959), but First Spaceship on Venus makes up in imagination what it lacks in budget, much like Mario Bava's Planet of the Vampires. If you dig the general atmosphere of that movie, this is probably up your alley as well. If you can't get past the problems with the script and dubbing, or are expecting slick modern special effects, this is probably not your cup of tea. If only someone could release the German version, competently dubbed or subtitled, FSOV would probably be ranked right up there with the Golden Age "classics"-Forbidden Planet, Destination Moon, Rocketship X-M, etc. As it is, "serious" SF fans will probably be intrigued, if not completely satisfied, while the casual viewer may find it rough sledding.
Fortunately for fans of FSOV, Wade Williams and Image have unearthed a virtually pristine print for this DVD transfer. It's letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the color saturation, color balance, black level, sharpness, and shadow/highlight detail are generally excellent. (There is a little blocking-up in the shadows at times.) Physical damage is limited to some very light speckling/blemishing, that does get a bit heavier around a couple of reel changes, and the occasional damaged frame. After years of watching cropped, faded, dupey TV prints it's a revelation to actually see the whole frame, and especially in such terrific shape. Until someone lays their hands on the original European cut this is probably as good as this film will ever look. (Be sure to avoid the awful full-frame Diamond DVD edition that's paired with Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet; and I haven't seen the Platinum DVD but it's a safe bet it's just as bad if not worse than Diamond's.) The trailer for FSOV is matted to about 1.85:1 and doesn't look nearly as nice as the feature, suffering from mediocre color, scratching, and a soft, dupey look. Five trailers for other Wade Williams/Image releases are also included. A can't-miss buy for admirers of this underappreciated Eastern European gem.
Rating: 
Summary: Who knew that Venus had a chocolatey, gooey center?
Review: First Spaceship on Venus provides us with this critical piece of advice - if you go to another planet and find yourself closely pursued by black goo, don't shoot it - not unless you want something really bad to happen to Earth, at least. You have to admire the optimism of these filmmakers, though, as they -from their 1962 perspective - imagined that in 1985 the world would be a pretty happy place where people wore great big letters of the alphabet on their shirts for some insane reason, where a moon base would already have been established, and where scientists from all countries worked together to send a spaceship to Venus. Why Venus? A strange metallic object has been discovered; scientists have concluded it came from the famous Tunguska Event of 1908 and is nothing less than a spool containing a message from another planet - a planet which, given the trajectory of the object that exploded over Siberia all those years ago, had to be Venus. Lickety-split, it's up, up, and away to Venus, as Earth seeks its first contact with an alien race.
Things start to go a little downhill when the grouchy scientist from India interprets the mystery spool and learns it details a plan of attack on Earth by the Venusians. Of course, there's also the obligatory meteorite-dodging scene that has to play out. Undaunted, though, our international crew of a half dozen men and one woman (someone had to serve the nutritious liquid beverages, I guess) sporting exceedingly ridiculous spacesuits (leisure suits for space, I would call them, complemented by banana suits for takeoffs and landings) continue their mission to Venus. The landing mission doesn't go so well, either.
There's really no chemistry between the crewmembers, not even between the man and woman who supposedly had some kind of relationship in the past. The crew commander is interesting, though, because his hair seems to grow taller as the movie progresses and he also seems to experience some sort of German silent expressionist film flashbacks from time to time. Frankly, I didn't really care who made it back and who didn't, and Venus itself turned out to be less interesting than the interior of the boring ship (where chess games were the highlight of space life).
First Spaceship on Venus does at least attempt to be a serious science fiction movie, but at its heart it is yet another anti-nuclear film of the early 1960s. Frankly, I would not have tried to make a point at the end of the film because, all told, the whole thing was rather pointless to begin with.
Rating: 
Summary: Finally, a widescreen version
Review: I bet I've watched this movie 20 times over the last 10 years between my old VHS copy and later Diamond Entertainment DVD version. I can't explain why, but I love this movie. It's the perfect lay in bed and doze-off-to movie. My recommendation: skip the Diamond fullscreen DVD version (which doesn't have any better quality than VHS tape) and go for the Image version. The only advantage the Diamond DVD has is that it's a double feature with "Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet", an almost decent dozer. I won't go into the plot or details since other reviews have. I can only say that this is an entirely enjoyable movie for classic sci-fi fans.
Rating:
Summary: For Classic Sci Fi Lovers
Review: I bought this film based on vague childhood memories of neat movie about a dark and mysterious planet being visited by an international crew from Earth. I was not disappointed. Although its translation into English adds a hokey air and a few chuckles due to some rather clumsy dialog, special effects (not high tech) and a generally good story line make this an interesting and highly entertaining film. If you're a SciFi buff, this film is a must.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as bad as they say
Review: I got this DVD at a Coconuts Bargain Bin and I don't regret my purchase, just that the translators of Prehistoric Planet took all the character out of the cosmonauts, often taking their dialogue concerning life on other planets and turning it into meaningless chit chat. The character of Kern suffers the most. His anti-human over machine attitude and his love for jazz are completely eliminated. Instead of a specific jazz piece he whistles in the Russian print, and the same piece played by John the Robot, we are given a toneless whistle from Kern and a non-specific filler song from John. The print of Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet is no better or worse than the original Russian print. It's nice to have a DVD of Planet of Storms in some form. Pity the original, Planeta Burg, hasn't been preserved on DVD. As for First Spaceship, there's a better print available, but if you want to see it the way you remembered it from Creature Feature on Saturday Afternoons, this is the print hired out to TV stations. In the final analysis, if you're a fan of Prehistoric Planet, get the original subtitled Russian version.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty cool East-German Sci-Fi
Review: If only I could ever find the original: the dubbed version is just too much. I had to turn the sound off at times. Otherwise it's a sci-fi of surprising quality proving that East Germany has managed some pretty decent films in its 50's and 60's cinematic heyday. I love the genuine PC (not our fake one!) detail: the spaceship crew include an African and a Chinese scientist something unimaginable in Hollywood not only back in its 50's sci-fi schlok era. However, this film is not all peaches and cream: it drags a bit, and at times feels chopped up. I don't know how much of the original was edited out but it feels as if it needs a longer time frame. Overall, fun to watch and compare to other sci-fi films from the same period.
Rating: 
Summary: First Spaceship on Venus - Needs to be shelved.
Review: My suggestion---don't buy this movie unless you rent it first!!! The dialogue is robotic, and poor. The plot is bad. The budget is way below low. I could live with a low budget if the story was in the least bit worth watching. This movie is not even interesting at all. There is no character developement. I could live with the "Dubbing" if the movie kept my interest, but it doesn't at all. I kept waiting for it to get good. It never did. If you wan't to see a good low budget movie, see "It came from outer space". It will keep your attention.
Rating:
Summary: You get what you pay for
Review: NOT as described by Amazon or the jacket - not the 130 minute original but the 78 minute dubbed version shown in the UK. The same poor quality picture (resolution 720 x 480) and sound as the 2000 release but much cheaper.
Based on Lem's 1951 first novel The Astronauts the theme is pacifist - compare with the also 1959 "On the Beach".
The fuzzy images on the DVD do not do justice to the excellent camerawork and (for the time) special effects.
At this price worth getting to compare with US films of the period.
Rating:
Summary: Who needs camp?
Review: Ok, I can see how some reviewers here can make the case for some kind of seriousness in this film. But all I'll say is, if you love Roger Corman goofy, funny sci-fi done for what looks like seriousness, then this is one of the best. I've watched it a few times and still laugh out loud. Like when they sink their spaceship to keep from getting smashed by a big fake pterodactyl creature, and then they drag the ship across the bottom of an aquarium, I mean like in your living room. Really funny. And it's dubbed to boot. ONe thing though, buy the other version that's a double feature with Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet. A HOT double feature. Hey I'm serious here. This is one funny movie.
Rating:
Summary: Make Mine Venus!
Review: Polish science fiction novelist Stanislaw Lem (born 1922) must take pride in the fact that his "Solaris" (1962) has now been twice filmed, first by Andrei Tarkovsky (1972) and more recently - also less effectively - by an American director whose name escapes me (2003); yet as early as 1960 Lem's first science fiction novel, "The Astronauts" (1952), had already appeared in an adaptation for the silver screen, directed by an East German, Kurt Maetzig. "First Spaceship on Venus" issued, in fact, from a Polish and East German collaboration, with contributions, in the ensemble of players, from three or four "third world" nations. Viewers will recognize Japanese actress Yoko Tani as the sole female crewmember of the space research vessel "Cosmostrator," the titular "First Spaceship" on earth's putative "twin," Venus. This is a mostly superb film, quite magical in its expressionistic special effects. Enticingly for audiences, almost half of the action takes place on Venus amidst sets that do justice to Lem's insistence that alien life will be incomprehensible to humanity. The story, briefly, is this: in 1985 excavations "to irrigate the Gobi Desert" discover extraterrestrial artifacts, one of which, a glassy "spool," contains the last message sent home from a spaceship engaged in reconnoitering the earth. The narration links this fictional incident to the actual 1908 Tunguska meteor impact. The "spool" has sustained damage and yields only a fraction of its contents, but from this bit scientists determine that the visitors originated on Venus, whereupon the "World Space Agency" determines to mount an expedition there. An international crew take command of the "Cosmostrator." The "Cosmostrator" itself demands some attention as one of the most unusual of silver-screen spaceships of the 1950s and 60s: its central silvery cylinder, housing the crew, is surrounded by four similarly hued cylinders of nearly equal dimension housing the engines; the sum of it is a kind of powerful elegance. But the real interest lies in the Venusian scenario itself. Maetzig gives us a shadowy, smoke-and-gas- shrouded landscape full of weird, half-obliterated shapes. One sequence shows the astronauts moving in their "ground cars" through what appears to be a street of melted skyscrapers; there are also huge underground spaces and indecipherable geodesic spheres and cones. The explorers gradually deduce that, on the verge of dousing the earth with radiation preparatory to invading and occupying it, the Venusians destroyed themselves in a fratricidal atomic war. We see the permanently etched shadows of the victims on a blasted wall. In an extremely alien episode, a lake of organic muck chases the terrestrials up the spiral ramp of a half-fused tower, only to retreat mysteriously before catching them fatally at the summit. The visuals elude adequate verbal description. If anyone knew the work of the 1950s and 60s science fiction illustrator Richard Powers, who did paperback covers in a semi-abstract style full of glassy-metallic quasi-biological and quasi-mechanical shapes, that might serve as a good reference. (Samples of Powers' work can be found on-line, should anyone care to go looking.) At the film's finale, in the prototypical Lem-gambit, the Venusians' automated defenses reverse the planet's gravity-field, hurling the "Cosmostrator" back into space, minus two or three unlucky casualties. Despite the Soviet-era utopian bravura, the mission has accomplished but little - the explorers are, in effect, defeated. Between the human and the non-human no genuine communication seems possible, especially where one party has insulated itself behind layers of electronics and automation and is long since a collective suicide. (This story of non-communication comes quite close to the plot of "Solaris," superficial differences notwithstanding - Tarkovsky must surely have known Maetzig's film; he would of course have been familiar with Lem's work beyond "Solaris.") One senses that this English version, with a dubbed soundtrack for American distribution, probably leaves a good many scenes on the cutting-room floor; neither can one tell much about the acting, which, in any case, is of less interest than the strangely realized other world. There is an amusing tracked robot named Omega. The source-print seems well preserved and the format is wide-screen. (A video-tape from a different producer derived from a faded print and cut the image down to television-screen dimensions.) On the strength of the scenic design, this movie should recommend itself to genre aficionados. Anyone who has never seen it is in for a treat.
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