Mr. Sale's SF Blog

Friday, September 15, 2006

Forbidden Planet Film Review

If you were assigned to do the film review for Forbidden Planet, please add your review as a comment to this post. Post your review no later than midnight, Sunday, September 24, 2006.

A good review will do the following:

 Start with a short synopsis (summary) of the film (just the basic setting, conflicts and characters)
 Address at least three criteria for judging a film (see below); explain how good a job you think the film did in each area
 Include specific examples to support your judgments of the criteria
 Make your review free of mechanical errors (spelling, capitalization, grammar)

Here is the list of criteria we brainstormed in class:

• Setting -- relative to the story
• Likeable and unlikable characters:
• Villain -- evil, cunning, stands above others
• Hero – saves people, super, courage, good, muscles
• Comedy/Comic relief
• Good Plot-easy to believe, good sequence, a lot happening, eventful, surprises/twists, good flow
• Special Effects -- believability, not overusing, relevant
• Camera angles/work (cinematography)
• Drama
• Editing/sequencing scenes
• Action
• Acting skills
• Sweet subtitles

posted by T Sale at 3:01 PM

8 Comments:

  • An inspiration for dozens of Science Fiction stories, the film "Forbidden Planet" is a story of space explorers sent to investigate a colony on a distant planet which has had no communications since its establishment. Suspiciously, there are only two survivors left on the planet, and they seem to be hiding a deadly secret. As the ship is mutilated under the crews noses and men start disappearing, Doctor Morbius' secret comes out. Alien technology has awakened a beast from his own mind, killing people without his knowlege. To end it all Morbius must take his own life, and destroy the planet and its technology so it will never happen again. For its time, Forbidden Planet is very impressive. The movie opened the doors for special effects and space-themed movies. The acting was average, but sometimes pretty bad. It was somewhat believable, but not enough to make you think it was real.

    By Blogger Matt B., at Mon Sep 25, 10:35:00 AM 2006  

  • (Posted for Katie G by Mr. Sale)
    The movie “The Forbidden Planet” was about a manned reconnaissance mission to Altera 4. There were only two human inhabitants remaining from a previous mission, who strongly cautioned the new arrivals. Dr. Morbius, during his twenty years on the planet, had discovered many secrets of an extinct and highly advanced society: the Krell. A planetary force threatens to wipe out the crew, but they are able to escape the planet before it explodes.
    I thought that the special effects in this movie were humorous animations in comparison to today’s standards. However, for 1956 I’m sure they were very impressive. The scene in which the men all got under beams when going through hyper-space was particularly corny. There editing was very choppy, and there was an obvious change of filters in the camera. The space ship itself appeared very fake, and looked completely animated when going through space. However the scene in which Dr. Morbius showed the Captain the inventions of the Krell used interesting camera angles and animation.
    The set of the movie was not much better than the special effects. It was an obviously fake painted background and nothing looked particularly convincing. Robby the Robot was obviously a human in a suit, and took away from the creativity of the concept of a robot.
    The plot was amusing, if not particularly original or unpredictable. I think many science fiction plots revolve around the same theme and don’t offer much variety. I thought it was interesting how the men maintained the same customs as today, such as the funeral, even though it was set far in the future.

    By Blogger T Sale, at Tue Sep 26, 02:47:00 PM 2006  

  • Aaron A --
    You made some good points about the film. Your review could be a bit more complete. For example, you could have described the acting more. You could have added an overall assessment of the film.

    By Blogger T Sale, at Wed Oct 04, 11:29:00 AM 2006  

  • Maggie C --
    This is an excellent review because you explain your opinions of the film clearly and provide specific examples of what you're talking about. Your review was also well organized and easy to follow. Nice job.

    By Blogger T Sale, at Wed Oct 04, 11:32:00 AM 2006  

  • Brandon --
    You picked three good criteria to talk about, but you didn't give any examples to explain why you made that judgment. For instance, what was one of the comic relief scenes? Which one made you laugh? You might want to post again to add some details to your review.

    By Blogger T Sale, at Wed Oct 04, 11:34:00 AM 2006  

  • Matt B --
    Your summary of the film is quite precise and masterfully written. You need to add more to your actual review. Remember to address at least three criteria (life special effects and acting), and to give a couple of specific, concrete examples for each one to support your opinions.

    By Blogger T Sale, at Thu Oct 05, 08:05:00 AM 2006  

  • Katie G --
    You gave an excellent review of the film. You addressed more than the minimum 3 criteria, and for each opinion your expressed you cited specific details from the movie. Your review is also clear and well written.

    By Blogger T Sale, at Thu Oct 05, 08:08:00 AM 2006  

  • Homer S --
    You did a good job of supporting each of your judgments about the film with specific references to scenes. You also wrote a good synopsis that gives a picture of what the film is like.

    By Blogger T Sale, at Thu Oct 05, 08:11:00 AM 2006  

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