Escapist fun! (Flight to Mars (DVD))

Name: sharktrager

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Product:	Flight to Mars (DVD)
Date:	27/02/01 (36 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: it's great fun

Disadvantages: wooden acting, nonsensical plot, and awful special effects

FLIGHT TO MARS was made in the wake of DESTINATION MOON and ROCKETSHIP X-M, both of which were released in the previous year. This was a low-budget rip-off, featuring a group of scientists, a newspaperman, and a token girl (the ‘assistant’ to the leading scientist) who crash-land on Mars.

On Mars they discover a group of Martians – who look just like human beings. Their leader, Ikron (played by Morris Ankrum, who turned up in I don’t know how many science fiction films of the 1950s, including RED PLANET MARS and HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER) can speak English – he’s learned how by monitoring our radio and TV broadcasts. They even seem to have discovered the left over space suits from DESTINATION MOON, as that is what they wear!

The Martians, of course, have a fiendish plot to invade the Earth because Mars will soon be uninhabitable for them. It is the job of the Earthmen to foil this plot.

Now I am a great fan of science fiction movies, especially these old black and white movies of the 1950s, and I can see that FLIGHT TO MARS has a certain charm, but I am one of the few who can. I watched it recently with my brother and he couldn’t help but comment on the wooden acting, nonsensical plot, and awful special effects, but to me these are some of the things which make this kind of movie fun to watch. Yes, no-one was ever going to win an Oscar for this movie, but that’s not what is was made for – it was made to be escapist fun and that, in my opinion, is exactly what it is.

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