First Men in the Moon

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself

I do love these old adventure movies. I always grew up with Journey to the Centre of the Earth but this one was seen a few times too. I love the explorations of strange new worlds built on the Shepperton Studios. Jules Verne and H.G. Welles are the greats. Verne was always concerned more with the science but Wells just wanted to tell a good story. War of the Worlds is my all time favourite sci-fi story.

FILMED IN DYNAMATION! Which means the great Ray Harryhausen has done all the effects and stop-motion creatures. Awesome stuff. We get some cool moon ant-people and giant angry caterpillar things.

What's not so great is the start. Lionel Jeffries plays the mad scientist and it's played for laughs and scored like a Warner Bros cartoon. I don't appreciate that at all, especially when compared to what happens after when they get to the moon and discover the ancient civilisation of moon people and start talking philosophy.

It doesn't have as much action as most of these old adventure films but it does have cool old-school effects and great sets and some interesting ideas that have been copied a thousand times since. It's also fun to see space travel as depicted before Apollo 11.