September 5, 2024

Neither Basil Rathbone nor Faith Domergue were actually in the original version of this Soviet tale of space exploration to Venus where dinosaurs really do rule. The print I saw had chroma-phase issues which dated it more than it deserved, I thought. It's not a great film, but is eerily suspenseful. "John" the robot could be a distant cousin of "Robby"; it's got a cool hover-Lada and the monsters are pretty much of the time. The audio is rotten t… read the rest.

Neither Basil Rathbone nor Faith Domergue were actually in the original version of this Soviet tale of space exploration to Venus where dinosaurs really do rule. The print I saw had chroma-phase issues which dated it more than it deserved, I thought. It's not a great film, but is eerily suspenseful. "John" the robot could be a distant cousin of "Robby"; it's got a cool hover-Lada and the monsters are pretty much of the time. The audio is rotten though, the dialogue is quite difficult to make out - particularly as they spend much of the movie in space helmets. The inserted dialogue from the two stars is clearly to interest English language audiences but the nature of their editing means the contributions add next to nothing to the actual storyline. Looks like it was filmed in an old quarry somewhere - and actually that helps it's authenticity. Think Jon Pertwee "Dr. Who"!

show less