Viaje al séptimo planeta

If you don't know by now, this science fiction adventure is one of the original "mind benders", an outer space flick in which aliens use mind control.

And against this kind of mind control, what can one do? If a character is powerful enough to warp your sense of Reality, then how can you truly fight it? We get a full throttle effect by showing a full length movie in which the outcome is really decided immediately, only no one knows it.

The super formidable enemy, the one you must rely solely on God's graces, or luck, to beat, is the one who controls all you perceive and conceive, the one whose control over what you see, hear, sense, is completely contrived by this foe.

We go through a series of adventures, and the characters seem totally out of control, but that's because they have no idea what Reality is any more. They go through total Chaos.

And the ending, which I won't spoil, leaves the audience in total Chaos, but also explains that indeed, there is nothing to be done but rely on luck if your perceptions are out of your control.

Overlooked film. It actually is better than many of the later ripoff versions which tried to be too contrived in modernism, by that I mean that the later films wanted to establish that SOME humans were superior enough to overcome this obstacle, which is flat out silly. If you have no direction and no vector, you are totally helpless to change your situation. This film goes under the old school of Credibility premise instead of the 1970s contrived "Man is God" premise.

I expected much worse, I wanted it to be fun. First time a film experience was ever spoiled by better than expected production values. For 1962 Denmark, this wasn't bad. The print I saw was pretty sharp and the colors were good. Special effects were about what youd expect.Kind of a lame role for John Agar, Id prefer him as a madman going space crazy and threatening the rest of the crew.Cerebral kind of story that you wouldn't expect from that era. Check out the vintage state of the art equipment, what was available then. I don't get the bizarre space helmets, they don't look functionable. Cool ending title song though. Its worth checking out for the nostalgic science fiction aficianados. Id like to see more antique 50s and 60s sci fi packaged on DVD

In the year 1962 this Science Fiction film arrived in our small home town at the local theater. It was called " Journey to the Seventh Planet. " All the kids ran to see it. Most of us were innocent youngsters and few knew anything of Science and fewer of the Solar System. During the movie with a large box of 10 cent popcorn and 5 cent coke, we watched in awe at the planet monsters, screaming in terror. The story was interesting enough, Earthmen of the future (2001) unite under the United Nation Flag, build a space ship, blast off to visit Uranus, the 7th planet. There the four spacemen wearing flimsy rubber suits, plexi-glass helmets and kitchen gloves, encounter a Blob or Mind-Creature who plans to conquer Earth and enslave the population. The giant creatures they encounter in the movie were exactly what attracted small children. As adults today, we wonder just how a cheesy, simple and hokey movie could produce such ear-splitting screams from an audience full of kids. John Agar stars as Capt. Don Graham, with Carl Ottosen, Peter Monch, Karl Ove Sprogøe as the crew. If you're an adult today, you too can create some modern nightmares in your kids, if they promise not to laugh too hard. Recommended for very young monster-seeking five-year-olds. *

Surprisingly enjoyable bad flickage. Sid Pink (may he rest in peace), the Danish auteur who served up "Reptilicus," presents "Solaris" on the cheap, more than a decade before the USSR's version. An evil, one-eyed alien brain in a cave on Uranus creates illusions based on what the astronauts are thinking. They keep thinking of lush forests and beautiful Scandinavian women, so where's the problem? Long as nobody thinks of Mr. Sta-Puft, they should be OK. I'm surprised The Duke doesn't show up, since John ("Look, I'm starring in yet another cheesy SF movie") Agar, just about the only non-(badly-)dubbed member of the cast, wears an embarrassed look that says: "I was in 'Sands of Iwo Jima' with John Wayne... SIGHHH..."

Now on DVD, double featured with "Invisible Invaders." Microwave the popcorn and enjoy.

Colorful but dull science fiction tale of an astronaut, John Agar, leading a team of explorers to Uranus, where a brain-like creature fights them by making their thoughts reality, which, as you may guess, involves them thinking about sultry ladies of their past. There's an interesting idea for a film buried here somewhere, but this is strictly children's sci-fi fare. Nothing great or even anything I'd even call good, but there were enough camp elements to keep me entertained.