27) Forbidden Planet (1956)

(4's out of 5)

"Another one of them new worlds. No beer, no women, no pool parlors, nothing. Nothing to do but throw rocks at tin cans, and we got to bring our own tin cans."

Director
Fred M. Wilcox

Cast

Walter Pidgeon - Dr. Edward Morbius
Leslie Nielsen - Commander John J. Adams
Anne Francis - Altaira Morbius
Warren Stevens - Lt. Ostrow
Jack Kelly - Lt. Jerry Farman
Richard Anderson - Chief Quinn
Earl Holliman - Cook
George Wallace - Bosun

The 1956 sci-fi action film "Forbidden Planet" holds a lofty spot as a foundational film in the sci-fi genre. While watching this movie for the first time, it left me with some wonderment about its place among other well loved and highly popular science fiction movies. 

I think this movie has left a trail of theories about its meaning and what its saying about society at the time among audiences since its premiere in 1956. It has left a cultural impact. That's for sure.
The story takes place centuries from now. The all-man crew (the best kind of crew to have) of the United Planets starship C-57D have been travelling well over a year through space on a mission to investigate what happened to another ship called the Bellerophon. That ship took off 20 years ago on its way to the planet Altair IV. Whatever happened to the ship has been a mystery. 

The C-57D crew reach Altair IV. Before landing, scientist Dr. Edward Morbius (Walter Pidgeon) who was onboard the Bellerophon warns them from the planet's surface via radio communication that they better not land for the sake of their safety. 

However, the ship's commander, John J. Adams (Leslie Nielsen) ignores the warning and lands anyways. 

Once on the surface of Altair IV, Adams and his crewmen meet a robot calling itself Robby (voiced by Marvin Miller) who transports them to Dr. Morbius's house. 

When they arrive and have a chance to meet and greet, Dr. Morbius fills them in on what happened to all the other crew members of the Bellerophon. Basically, they're all dead. 

He says each of them was killed by an unseen planetary force. This force was so forceful that it completely vaporized the entire ship in a truly forceful manner beyond their own forces. 

Thankfully for Dr. Morbius, he and his wife survived. However, his wife has since passed away, but their gorgeous young daughter, Altaira (Anne Francis), is still alive. 

So, Morbius and Altaira have been living a secluded life in a futuristic house that's as futuristic as the late 1950s can conjure up. 

Morbius cordially offers to send the Adams and his crew back to Earth. 

However, this all-male crew haven't seen a girl in over a year. So, a few of them would love nothing more than have a few minutes alone with Altaira. For instance, Adams finds one of his crewmen, Farman (Jack Kelly) trying to "teach" Altaira how to kiss. Being alone on the planet with no one else but her father has kept her pretty naive.  

Adams not only chastises Farman for his behavior, but he also barks at Altaira for her choice of revealing clothing. It's worth mentioning that Adams and Altaira fall in love by the end of the movie. 

During his isolation on Altair IV, Morbius has been studying artifacts from the planet's ancient civilization called the Krell, who were highly advanced, but not advanced enough as they mysteriously disappeared over night (literally) thousands of years ago. So, how did that happen? 

One of the Krell artifacts Morbius now has is a device that increases human intellect. Morbius previously used on himself. Though it nearly killed him, he's now a lot smarter than before. 

The last thing he wants to do, despite Adams adamant insistence, is share these advanced Krell technologies with Earth.  

Shortly after, an invisible and destructive living force is discovered. Adams creates an invisible force field to protect his crew, but this invisible monstrous creature breaks through it and kills Adams' Chief Engineer. 

Morbius has some kind of premonition that this creature will return with it a lot more destruction and death. 

Not only does "Forbidden Planet" have a grand production design, a decent cast, a lovable robot named Robby that's still iconic nearly 70 years later, and animated effects by animator Joshua Meador who was on loan to MGM from the Walt Disney Studios, "Forbidden Planet" also has quite a legacy. 

A large handful of science fiction space adventure franchises take inspiration from "Forbidden Planet." While watching the movie, I can see where Gene Roddenberry's "Star Trek" and George Lucas's "Star Wars" are derivative of "Forbidden Planet." 

And some of the wide-angle scenes and space-scapes surely gave George Lucas ideas when making "Star Wars." There's a lot of wide-angle shots to really make sure audiences take in the futuristic other-planetary atmosphere and space setting. 

Plus, Robby the Robot is something of the original droid. Similar to one protocol droid from "Star Wars" we all know and love, Robby can speak 187 languages other than English. He can also do something other droids haven't yet seemed to master. Robby can make a pot of coffee and brew hard alcohol when requested to do so! "Would 60 gallons be sufficient?" 

By the way, for those that don't know, Robby has a cameo in the 1984 movie "Gremlins." 

The word "iconic" is used a lot by movie buffs, myself included. But Leslie Nielson's performance predating his more well know comedic roles is truly that. Iconic!  

I think this is another movie I ought to watch again as I have a feeling I missed some important things the first time around. There's some intellectual depth to the story involving the dark side of the human mind and human behavior. 

When moral restrictions, the moral code written on the heart of every man, and the dictates of our conscience are removed, where does that leave a fallen people?

For instance, the idea of incestuous feelings is hinted at though nothing blatant is depicted, glorified, or stated. It's very subtle and vaguely left to the audience to speculate. This idea pops up when Dr. Morbius is evidently jealous as his daughter falls in love with Adams, which he's clearly against.

Also, the story is based on Shakespeare's "The Tempest." Basically, there's a taste of how the corruption of humanity, which the Christian world calls original sin, destroys the order of reason over the desires of the flesh. This notion comes up when Adams finds Farman taking advantage of Altaira by "teaching" her the stimulating nature of kissing

Adams not only rebukes Farman for his behavior but chastises Altaira for wearing such a scanty outfit in the midst of a male space crew who haven't been around a woman in 378 days. 

For a movie from 1956, "Forbidden Planet" has a daring and bold nature to it. It rises above the usual campy sci-fi flicks of this atomic era of science fiction/ horror. 

My one problem with the movie is that it does feel like it drags on. It takes its time getting to the climax. It has action and some intensity here and there, but I sat through a few dialogue-heavy scenes waiting for something to happen. That's not to say I was bored watching "Forbidden Planet." I was certainly invested. 

If any movie lover wants a real taste of the best films from the atomic age of sci-fi/ horror of the 1950s and 1960s, "Forbidden Planet" is definitely among the top picks of the period to watch. The set design is impressive and reminds me of something my mind would conjure up reading vintage-y dime-store science fiction novels. The special effects, though certainly of their period, are just as impressive as I'm sure they were back in '56. Yeah, they've aged but still deserve great appreciation. 

This is a movie I definitely plan to watch again. There's substance to this sci-fi action film that I'm sure I didn't pick up on completely the first time around. 

26) Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

(3's out of 5)

"I once had strings, but now I'm free."

Director
Joss Whedon

Cast
Robert Downey Jr. - Tony Stark/ Ironman
Chris Hemsworth - Thor
Mark Ruffalo - Bruce Banner/ Hulk
Chris Evans - Steve Rogers/ Captain America
Scarlett Johansson - Natasha Romanoff/ Black Widow
Jeremy Renner - Clint Barton/ Hawkeye
Don Cheadle - James Rhodes/ War Machine
Aaron Taylor-Johnson - Pietro Maximoff
Elizabeth Olsen - Wanda Maximoff

Paul Bettany - J.A.R.V.I.S

James Spader - Ultron

The stakes are greater, and the fight is certainly narrowed down in "Avengers: Age of Ultron," the sequel to "The Avengers" and the second movie in the Avengers line-up from Marvel. My thoughts and feelings about this movie are scattered.

"Avengers: Age of Ultron" is a slightly more entertaining film than the previous movie. It's packed in with as much Marvel-ly stuff as it can hold. It also feels like it's making the plot up as it goes along. 

The movie begins as the Avengers- Iron Man, Hulk, Capt. America, Black Widow and Hawkeye- attack a Hydra facility headed up by Baron Wolfgang von Strucker. The Baron had previously been conducting experiments on people with Loki's staff from the first movie. 

While raiding the joint, the Avengers find two of Wolfgang's subjects - Pietro (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), who are twins. It turns out Pietro has the ability to travel at superhuman speed. Wanda, as those who tuned into the Marvel series "WandaVision" know, possesses telekinesis. So, they're quite the brother and sister duo. 

Loki's staff contains a gem that possesses an intelligent power. Ironman/ Tony Stark (Robert Downy, Jr.) and the Hulk/ Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) use this gem to enhance Stark's global defense program named "Ultron." 

Ultron, voiced by James Spader, in "Avengers: Age of Ultron."

Well, as one would expect in a superhero movie, Ultron (James Spader) becomes self-aware and sentient, and all evil and stuff. By "evil" I mean he starts to think that he needs to eradicate all of humanity to save the earth. 

He sets his crosshairs on Tony Stark's personal AI system "J.A.R.V.I.S." So, to get to J.A.R.V.I.S. Ultron attacks the Avengers' headquarters. 

He also consistently upgrades himself while doing all this. 

J.A.R.V.I.S, meanwhile, is hiding somewhere in the deep corners of cyberspace (does anyone still call it that anymore?). 

Stark and Banner manage to secretly transfer J.A.R.V.I.S. into a synthetic body (Paul Bettany) and use that gem from Loki's staff to animate J.A.R.V.I.S.'s body. 

Somewhere around this time, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) returns to help his fellow Avengers save Earth after he has a vision that the gem inserted onto J.A.R.V.I.S.'s forehead is one of the six infinity stones.

So, the Avengers square off with Ultron for the sake of humanity's existence. 

"Avengers: Age of Ultron" is an improvement from the first movie. There's so much packed into it that the movie doesn't waste a moment. There's certainly less in-between scenes with a lot more dialogue than anything else. Afterall, "Age of Ultron" isn't trying, or trying as much as the first, to set things up like the first film did. 

There's more substance in this sequel. That is, there's more action and, basically, stuff other than dialogue happening. 

While the movie manages to entertain, and despite how lofty a production it is with a major stellar cast returning, it's still a lot of the same as the other Marvel movies. Nothing much stands out.  

Regardless, I was much more involved and interested in this story than I was in the first movie. 

It plays out much better than before. My investment into the film didn't quite fade. 

There's some character insight as well, particularly with Hawkeye. The introduction of the Maximoff's and their turmoil with Tony Stark was also an intriguing plot point. They, along with Hawkeye, convey the most emotion and personality compared to the rest of the characters who are pretty much just as dry as they were in the first movie. Otherwise, the movie just pushes ahead. 

Aside from that, there's not much room from much character development among anyone else. 

I guess character insight was dealt with in each of the superhero's respective stand-alone movies. It's up to audiences to watch them and figure it all out themselves. 

Watching this second installment made me realize that Ultron is a much less interesting villain compared to Loki. Ultron turns out to be just another out-of-control intelligent robot that isn't intimidating nor possessing much, if any, personality. Give one point to part one for having a better villain. 

As for the overall plot, though it kept me interested, it seems like everything that happens is made up as the movie progresses. It's as though the producers were desperate to make this experience better than before and careful not to forget all the typical Marvel comic tropes. Nothing, if anything, about the movie feels fresh. There's hardly anything eye-popping. 

The fight scenes were entertaining, though. I wouldn't call it exciting, though. The movie is a service to fan as it strives to meet audience's expectations before the next movie, "Avengers: Infinity Wars" was to come out. All in all, "Age of Ultron" builds upon what the previous movie setup and manages to tell a story, leaving all the set-up to "The Avengers." That's about all this movie has going for it. It's not great, but at least it's not part one.