Warped9
07-30-2007, 08:19 PM
Over the weekend I picked up two ‘60s classics, Fantastic Voyage (1966) and Planet Of The Apes (1968), for my burgeoning DVD collection.
I hadn’t seen Planet Of The Apes in about twenty years and it still rocks. I don’t care if the apes in the newer remake of the film are more credible looking, the original film is still superior in terms of every other consideration. True the remake is closer to the original novel, but the ’68 film is still better than that as well.
Planet Of The Apes also still looks fantastic and very imaginative. The opening scenes after the crash landing, supported by very appropriate scoring, are truly effective in evoking the sense of landing on a strange and seemingly inhospitable alien world. The rest is icing on the cake. My own small reservations are in terms of worldbuilding and they do not detract from the film as a whole. 1) How can the apes have precision manufacturing to produce firearms and ammo yet still be so crude in practically every other respect? 2) It would have been better if Taylor’s crew had originated from the late 20th or even better the 21st century rather than the mid 20th. But those points are nitpicking.
The last time I saw Fantastic Voyage was as a TV rerun in the mid ‘70s. Now we have a gorgeous DVD transfer. The story gets going right away and most everything works in terms of acting and writing. The story never really seems to bog down. Of course this is storytelling in contrast to today’s emphasis on character with story and plot so often barely given a nod.
Of course the film’s idea is truly out there even today never mind in the ‘60s: shrinking people and equipment down to microscopic size. The film gets away with it because it doesn’t try to oversell the idea by dwelling on it and trying to explain it with pseudo science and technobabble. They just get on with it and treat it in a very straightforward manner. I also like that these are smart characters who figure things out usually long before the audience. That’s the proper way to maintain suspense and unpredictability.
Even after forty years I’m still impressed with the f/x for the most part. Of course today we have methods to actually see into an organism down to that scale and thus that could be effectively recreated with cgi f/x. But that doesn’t detract from FV’s very evocative sense of speculation and imagination. Even if it isn’t realistically true it still FEELS mostly true in its artistic visual presentation. And there’s still something rather tangibly immediate in seeing the actors interacting with physical sets and f/x rather than being superimposed over a green screen effect. And I still thought it was creepy to see the antibodies attacking.
I’m surprised I haven’t heard of this film being remade as so many others have been. But then what could be brought to a remake of an already well done story? Essentially all that would be accomplished would be slicker looking cgi f/x and more focus on character development? Perhaps a little more complexity to a plot that already sufficient?
Watching Fantastic Voyage I also couldn’t help reflect on Star Trek TOS’ episode “The Immunity Syndrome” as well as the current redoing of f/x in TOS-R. Fantastic Voyage is state-of-the-art ‘60s f/x. If TOS had had access to FV’s production standards than the massive single cell creature in “The Immunity Syndrome” could likely have been done quite differently. In extent FV suggests to us what a properly updated space creature should look like in TOS-R rather than a cartoony cgi rendering. The shots of FV’s submarine Proteus coursing through blood vessels suggests what the Enterprise and the shuttlecraft in Star Trek could have looked like moving through the space amoeba if done to feature film standards of the ‘60s.
Both these films remain fully deserving of classic status.
:thumbsup:
I hadn’t seen Planet Of The Apes in about twenty years and it still rocks. I don’t care if the apes in the newer remake of the film are more credible looking, the original film is still superior in terms of every other consideration. True the remake is closer to the original novel, but the ’68 film is still better than that as well.
Planet Of The Apes also still looks fantastic and very imaginative. The opening scenes after the crash landing, supported by very appropriate scoring, are truly effective in evoking the sense of landing on a strange and seemingly inhospitable alien world. The rest is icing on the cake. My own small reservations are in terms of worldbuilding and they do not detract from the film as a whole. 1) How can the apes have precision manufacturing to produce firearms and ammo yet still be so crude in practically every other respect? 2) It would have been better if Taylor’s crew had originated from the late 20th or even better the 21st century rather than the mid 20th. But those points are nitpicking.
The last time I saw Fantastic Voyage was as a TV rerun in the mid ‘70s. Now we have a gorgeous DVD transfer. The story gets going right away and most everything works in terms of acting and writing. The story never really seems to bog down. Of course this is storytelling in contrast to today’s emphasis on character with story and plot so often barely given a nod.
Of course the film’s idea is truly out there even today never mind in the ‘60s: shrinking people and equipment down to microscopic size. The film gets away with it because it doesn’t try to oversell the idea by dwelling on it and trying to explain it with pseudo science and technobabble. They just get on with it and treat it in a very straightforward manner. I also like that these are smart characters who figure things out usually long before the audience. That’s the proper way to maintain suspense and unpredictability.
Even after forty years I’m still impressed with the f/x for the most part. Of course today we have methods to actually see into an organism down to that scale and thus that could be effectively recreated with cgi f/x. But that doesn’t detract from FV’s very evocative sense of speculation and imagination. Even if it isn’t realistically true it still FEELS mostly true in its artistic visual presentation. And there’s still something rather tangibly immediate in seeing the actors interacting with physical sets and f/x rather than being superimposed over a green screen effect. And I still thought it was creepy to see the antibodies attacking.
I’m surprised I haven’t heard of this film being remade as so many others have been. But then what could be brought to a remake of an already well done story? Essentially all that would be accomplished would be slicker looking cgi f/x and more focus on character development? Perhaps a little more complexity to a plot that already sufficient?
Watching Fantastic Voyage I also couldn’t help reflect on Star Trek TOS’ episode “The Immunity Syndrome” as well as the current redoing of f/x in TOS-R. Fantastic Voyage is state-of-the-art ‘60s f/x. If TOS had had access to FV’s production standards than the massive single cell creature in “The Immunity Syndrome” could likely have been done quite differently. In extent FV suggests to us what a properly updated space creature should look like in TOS-R rather than a cartoony cgi rendering. The shots of FV’s submarine Proteus coursing through blood vessels suggests what the Enterprise and the shuttlecraft in Star Trek could have looked like moving through the space amoeba if done to feature film standards of the ‘60s.
Both these films remain fully deserving of classic status.
:thumbsup: