{"id":1345,"date":"2017-08-05T16:33:06","date_gmt":"2017-08-05T20:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=1345"},"modified":"2017-08-05T16:33:06","modified_gmt":"2017-08-05T20:33:06","slug":"forbidden-planet-the-quintessential-sci-fi-movie-ocf-classic-movie-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/05\/forbidden-planet-the-quintessential-sci-fi-movie-ocf-classic-movie-reviews\/","title":{"rendered":"Forbidden Planet \u2013 The Quintessential Sci-Fi Movie? \u2013 OCF Classic Movie Reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A lot of stuff has been said about what makes Forbidden Planet such an important sci-fi movie.\u00a0 The ground-breaking special effects, the plot element of a human military vessel exploring space that would spawn the endless iterations of the Star Ship Enterprise.\u00a0 And of course, there\u2019s the classical angle.\u00a0 Supposedly the plot is an update of Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cThe Tempest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So, there\u2019s all that good stuff.\u00a0 But to my mind the real reason can be summed up in two words, Anne Francis.\u00a0 When the angelic face of Miss Francis first appears on screen I began to see the movie in the correct light.\u00a0 This was an epic adventure story that rivalled the Odyssey of Homer for timelessness and meaning.\u00a0 Now the fact that I was a sixteen-year old boy at the time probably colored my thought processes to some extent and the skimpiness of her costumes might even have had something to do with it.\u00a0 But let\u2019s face it, giant ants can only get you so far.\u00a0 If you want to keep the natives from getting restless you have to appeal to their most powerful motivations and if a blonde-haired, blue eyed creature with a very pretty face and extremely long shapely unclad legs is brought center stage, suddenly even the acting skills of Leslie Nielsen seem greatly enhanced and worth a fair hearing.<\/p>\n<p>But now that I\u2019m in my dotage and no longer as easily swayed by a pretty face, I\u2019ve had a chance to re-evaluate the movie.\u00a0 Surprisingly, I\u2019m still a big fan.\u00a0 And this is despite the obvious weaknesses that are extremely evident in such an old film.\u00a0 The dialog has some extremely clich\u00e9-ridden exchanges including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The captain tells off the young woman because her uninhibited interest in the young men in his crew will be a distraction from military discipline.<\/li>\n<li>Morbius displays the stereotypical arrogance of the academic intellectual toward the practical military authorities.<\/li>\n<li>The banter provided by the ship\u2019s cook is the comic relief that would seem right at home in an Abbott and Costello movie.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So what makes it good?\u00a0 Well, the humans are mostly likeable and admirable.\u00a0 The plot unwinds in a manner that allows for the gradual reveal of the mystery.\u00a0 Of course, the who of the question is answered long before the why and how of the problem.\u00a0 But the details provide reinforcement of the underlying lesson to learn.\u00a0 We are reminded that smarter isn\u2019t the same as perfect.<\/p>\n<p>And the special effects are still pretty good.\u00a0 The animation of the Krell infrastructure impresses the viewer with the gargantuan scope of the installation.\u00a0 The humans walking through it literally look like ants at one point.<\/p>\n<p>And finally, the interaction between the isolated inhabitants of this dream world and the crew of the no-nonsense military vessel is classic.\u00a0 It reminds you of the stories that portray the first contact between Europeans and the South Sea Islands.\u00a0 The sailors always have a feeling they have somehow discovered paradise with its idyllic climate, scantily clad, friendly women and tropical fruit. The military men are enthralled with how favorably it compares to the boring, spartan existence of their all-male naval vessel.<\/p>\n<p>Are there problems with the story?\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 Morbius seems a little too dense for a brilliant scientist.\u00a0 The resolution of the crisis at the end is a little jarring.\u00a0 The solution is quite heavy handed.\u00a0 But all in all, it\u2019s a pretty neat story.\u00a0 I think it indicates why the Star Trek series was so popular.\u00a0 But I think it also shows why the later tv series were less interesting.\u00a0 The adventure and discovery aspects became less of a focus as the Enterprise became less of a military\/exploration vessel and more of a social worker\/nanny vehicle to the stars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A lot of stuff has been said about what makes Forbidden Planet such an important sci-fi movie.\u00a0 The ground-breaking special effects, the plot element of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,238,237,243],"tags":[290,291,292,43,38,44,295,293,294],"class_list":["post-1345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","category-classic-movie-reviews","category-reviews","category-sff-movie-reviews","tag-anne-francis","tag-forbidden-planet","tag-leslie-nielsen","tag-movie-review","tag-review","tag-sci-fi","tag-shakespeare","tag-star-trek","tag-the-tempest"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Forbidden Planet \u2013 The Quintessential Sci-Fi Movie? \u2013 OCF Classic Movie Reviews - Orion&#039;s Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/05\/forbidden-planet-the-quintessential-sci-fi-movie-ocf-classic-movie-reviews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Forbidden Planet \u2013 The Quintessential Sci-Fi Movie? \u2013 OCF Classic Movie Reviews - Orion&#039;s Cold Fire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A lot of stuff has been said about what makes Forbidden Planet such an important sci-fi movie.\u00a0 The ground-breaking special effects, the plot element of\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/05\/forbidden-planet-the-quintessential-sci-fi-movie-ocf-classic-movie-reviews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Orion&#039;s Cold Fire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-08-05T20:33:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"photog\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@orionscoldfire\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@orionscoldfire\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"photog\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/05\/forbidden-planet-the-quintessential-sci-fi-movie-ocf-classic-movie-reviews\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/05\/forbidden-planet-the-quintessential-sci-fi-movie-ocf-classic-movie-reviews\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"photog\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d11e80f83f3825ce9fe38a5303eb64d3\"},\"headline\":\"Forbidden Planet \u2013 The Quintessential Sci-Fi Movie? \u2013 OCF Classic Movie Reviews\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-08-05T20:33:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-08-05T20:33:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/05\/forbidden-planet-the-quintessential-sci-fi-movie-ocf-classic-movie-reviews\/\"},\"wordCount\":647,\"commentCount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Anne Francis\",\"Forbidden Planet\",\"Leslie Nielsen\",\"movie review\",\"review\",\"sci-fi\",\"Shakespeare\",\"Star Trek\",\"The Tempest\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Movie Reviews\",\"OCF Classic Movie Reviews\",\"Reviews\",\"SF&amp;F Movie Reviews\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/05\/forbidden-planet-the-quintessential-sci-fi-movie-ocf-classic-movie-reviews\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/05\/forbidden-planet-the-quintessential-sci-fi-movie-ocf-classic-movie-reviews\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/05\/forbidden-planet-the-quintessential-sci-fi-movie-ocf-classic-movie-reviews\/\",\"name\":\"Forbidden Planet \u2013 The Quintessential Sci-Fi Movie? \u2013 OCF Classic Movie Reviews - Orion&#039;s Cold Fire\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-08-05T20:33:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-08-05T20:33:06+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/05\/forbidden-planet-the-quintessential-sci-fi-movie-ocf-classic-movie-reviews\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/05\/forbidden-planet-the-quintessential-sci-fi-movie-ocf-classic-movie-reviews\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/05\/forbidden-planet-the-quintessential-sci-fi-movie-ocf-classic-movie-reviews\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Forbidden Planet \u2013 The Quintessential Sci-Fi Movie? \u2013 OCF Classic Movie Reviews\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/\",\"name\":\"Orion&#039;s Cold Fire\",\"description\":\"All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Orion's Cold Fire\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/DSC06141.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/DSC06141.jpg\",\"width\":4022,\"height\":1419,\"caption\":\"Orion's Cold Fire\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/orionscoldfire\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d11e80f83f3825ce9fe38a5303eb64d3\",\"name\":\"photog\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/photog-image.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/photog-image.jpg\",\"caption\":\"photog\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/author\/photog\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Forbidden Planet \u2013 The Quintessential Sci-Fi Movie? \u2013 OCF Classic Movie Reviews - Orion&#039;s Cold Fire","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/05\/forbidden-planet-the-quintessential-sci-fi-movie-ocf-classic-movie-reviews\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Forbidden Planet \u2013 The Quintessential Sci-Fi Movie? \u2013 OCF Classic Movie Reviews - Orion&#039;s Cold Fire","og_description":"A lot of stuff has been said about what makes Forbidden Planet such an important sci-fi movie.\u00a0 The ground-breaking special effects, the plot element of","og_url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/05\/forbidden-planet-the-quintessential-sci-fi-movie-ocf-classic-movie-reviews\/","og_site_name":"Orion&#039;s Cold Fire","article_published_time":"2017-08-05T20:33:06+00:00","author":"photog","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@orionscoldfire","twitter_site":"@orionscoldfire","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"photog","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/05\/forbidden-planet-the-quintessential-sci-fi-movie-ocf-classic-movie-reviews\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/05\/forbidden-planet-the-quintessential-sci-fi-movie-ocf-classic-movie-reviews\/"},"author":{"name":"photog","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d11e80f83f3825ce9fe38a5303eb64d3"},"headline":"Forbidden Planet \u2013 The Quintessential Sci-Fi Movie? \u2013 OCF Classic Movie Reviews","datePublished":"2017-08-05T20:33:06+00:00","dateModified":"2017-08-05T20:33:06+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/05\/forbidden-planet-the-quintessential-sci-fi-movie-ocf-classic-movie-reviews\/"},"wordCount":647,"commentCount":2,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#organization"},"keywords":["Anne Francis","Forbidden Planet","Leslie Nielsen","movie review","review","sci-fi","Shakespeare","Star Trek","The Tempest"],"articleSection":["Movie Reviews","OCF Classic Movie Reviews","Reviews","SF&amp;F Movie Reviews"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/05\/forbidden-planet-the-quintessential-sci-fi-movie-ocf-classic-movie-reviews\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/05\/forbidden-planet-the-quintessential-sci-fi-movie-ocf-classic-movie-reviews\/","url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/05\/forbidden-planet-the-quintessential-sci-fi-movie-ocf-classic-movie-reviews\/","name":"Forbidden Planet \u2013 The Quintessential Sci-Fi Movie? \u2013 OCF Classic Movie Reviews - Orion&#039;s Cold Fire","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-08-05T20:33:06+00:00","dateModified":"2017-08-05T20:33:06+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/05\/forbidden-planet-the-quintessential-sci-fi-movie-ocf-classic-movie-reviews\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/05\/forbidden-planet-the-quintessential-sci-fi-movie-ocf-classic-movie-reviews\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/05\/forbidden-planet-the-quintessential-sci-fi-movie-ocf-classic-movie-reviews\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Forbidden Planet \u2013 The Quintessential Sci-Fi Movie? \u2013 OCF Classic Movie Reviews"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/","name":"Orion&#039;s Cold Fire","description":"All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#organization","name":"Orion's Cold Fire","url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/DSC06141.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/DSC06141.jpg","width":4022,"height":1419,"caption":"Orion's Cold Fire"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/orionscoldfire"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d11e80f83f3825ce9fe38a5303eb64d3","name":"photog","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/photog-image.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/photog-image.jpg","caption":"photog"},"url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/author\/photog\/"}]}},"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1345"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1347,"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345\/revisions\/1347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}