Runtime: 62 minutes… which is still not short enough
Directed by: Phil Tucker
“Starring”: George Nader, Gregory Moffett, Claudia Barrett, Selena Royle, John Mylong
From: Three Dimension Pictures
Ooof, never watch this without the aid of MST3K. In short, my schedule in the past 24 hours necessitated something short; also, this is one of the more infamous of the “cheesy 50’s/60’s sci-fi pictures” out there so away we go… or rather, saunter slowly through the desert ad nauseum while wearing a gorilla suit and diving helmet because this was as “exotic” as this zero budget picture could get in terms of creature outfits. Space gorilla actually speaks English, and does so quite frequently.
Aliens have decimated the Earth, except for a small cadre of people who just so happen to live right by the lair of the “Ro-man” creature who eradicated everyone else. It falls in love with the young lady that’s still alive and… that’s really it for the plot. That is unless you need me to tell you that this is full of gaffes, has more than its fair share of puzzling moments, contains a bubble machine as another “special” effect, an unsubtle Elmer Bernstein score, or that it is deathly, interminably dull. Honestly, the boredom contained in just a hair over an hour is a big reason why this receives such a lowly rating when there is no shortage of camp value throughout, such as-to list an example-the annoying boy calling Ro-man A POOPED-OUT PINWHEEL.
Perhaps I shouldn’t totally eviscerate Robot Monster when they were able to film the production in 3D, in terms of box office it was a success and director Phil Tucker tried to take his own life due to allegedly not getting paid for his work and couldn’t find subsequent work. At the same time though, the movie is still rather putrid. The only moments that look good are the obvious stock footage scenes taken from better work, getting through Robot Monster was a LONG hour and the plot is suspiciously similar to another 1953 sci-fi picture-which is superior-right down to the ending. To be fair, plenty are familiar with this movie even 70 years later, which is more than what can be said of many sci-fi contemporaries.
There can be value in experiencing God-awful films, whether it be to laugh at their pathetic attempts at entertainment or to make you appreciate even the mediocre motion pictures in comparison. Ultimately, this is best experienced as the episode during the early days of Mystery Science Theater 3000 or a Rifftrax episode released last year that I haven’t viewed.
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