Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Micransix Crappy film

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Hitchcoc So many of my friends and I were big fans of space ships and interplanetary travel. The movies of the time left something to be desired, i.e. real science. While there are mistake along the way, the producers of this film did try really hard to show us the way things might have been as humans began to explore space. Issues such as weightlessness, rocketry, and the ability to breathe are issues that a person striving for reality would not overlook. Of course, some films simply have the technology and we never get to see the foundations around it. While short of acting and a little thin on plot, we loved it..

Matthew Kresal The 1950s can be looked back upon as something of a golden age for science fiction films. Both large and low budget films dealt with everything from giant monsters to space exploration, in the latter's case years before it became a fact of life. With that in mind, it is often interesting to go back and look at films from that era to see what they got right as well as what they got wrong. Take this film for instance, released in the summer of 1950 and the brainchild of producer George Pal. Pal in turn drew on top talent such as the science fiction writer Robert Heinlein and artist Chesley Bonestell to help bring this tale of the first manned mission to the Moon to life nearly two decades before NASA's Apollo missions did so. Given that fact, it might be surprising the things the film gets right or predicts. From EVAs (extra-vehicular activities or spacewalks) to the landing itself with last minute corrections, the film has some intriguing pre-echoes of what was to come. There's even moments akin to iconic first words and though the film doesn't go quite as far as having the astronauts plant an American flag, they something not too dissimilar. The film even depicts zero gravity, a rarity for the time, while also making educated guesses about spacesuits and what foods could be eaten in space. Much like Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, the film presented a (for its time) plausible vision of space exploration in the not too distant future and as a result the film holds up pretty well in that regard.The film proved iconic in other ways as well. Take the large silver nuclear powered rocket at the heart of the film, so iconic that its influence can be felt throughout much of 1950s and 60s science fiction. The film's depiction of the Earth from space and the lunar surface, shown via a limited set and the paintings of Chesley Bonestell, show what was expected in the days before Sputnik let alone Apollo or the Space Shuttle. While not always accurate, the way the Moon is shown here can be felt on films throughout the era such as 1964's The First Men In The Moon and arguably even Kubrick's 2001. Not to mention the score by Leith Stevens, which would effectively set the standard by which other films in the genre would have to live up to (Stevens would go on to score Pal's When Worlds Collide and the iconic 1953 film of H.G. Wells' The War Of The Worlds). All of which is shown in glorious Technicolor which looks stunning even now, brought together under George Pal's vision with it being directed by Irving Pichel with the result being a film that stands heads and shoulders above much of what was made in the decades to follow.Yet, like all works of "art", the film is very much a product of the time it was created it. The film's special effects, impressive for the time and which appropriately won the Oscar in 1950, are what have perhaps dated the most though they have their moments of effectiveness even sixty odd years later. Where the film is most dated is in it is dialogue and performances, which can be described as at best functional and laughable at worst. The film's semi- documentary tone leaves a lot of room for speeches and exposition but for little else, especially characterization with only Dick Wesson's everyman radio operator Joe Sweeney really having any character. Given the film was released in 1950, Cold War fears are present throughout with the insinuation of the Soviets (unnamed throughout the film's opening third) sabotaging projects and trying to hold back the mission. It's also interesting to note that, given that NASA (a government agency) put men on the moon, the film makes quite a big deal in that same screen-time towards the notion that only private industry could pull off a Moon mission because "government doesn't make those kinds of appropriations in peace time," to paraphrase the General Thayer character. For all of its faults, Destination Moon remains watchable even after six decades. Its Technicolor look at the then not too distant future makes for intriguing viewing even with inaccuracies that we know today or the at times lackluster writing that's heavy on exposition. For its effects and presentation, its a classic in its own way. Not on the level of say 2001 but it is a film every bit as important to the science fiction film genre as Kubrick's. For that alone, it's well worth a watch.

mark.waltz If NASA has its way, according to this George Pal movie, the United States has the obligation to get to the moon first in order to prevent us from being attacked as well as attack from outer space if necessary. No mention of keeping peace or preventing future world wars. It is as if we learned nothing from recent wars-conquer or be conquered these scientists believe. This is the frame that gets the movie started, but unfortunately, that's the end of that concern as the film progresses and the astronauts make their way into the unknown abyss of our galaxy. What they encounter on the moon is simply to return home, but can they? Fortunately, they do not encounter "moon men" or other creatures, just the sight of the earth in the distance. This is not a special effects masterpiece; the photography seems more animated than the popular "stop motion" effects used at the time. As a curiosity, this is worth a view, but will never be among the classic visions of outer-space during the beginning of that genre.

jtwcosmos "That isn't public opinion - it's a job of propaganda!"This is the story of how the Americans got to the Moon. It is also the first science-fiction movie that approaches the reality of outer space from a scientific perspective, or so they say. All I can say is that it is flat, stiff and boring, but at least it has pretty colors. And it won an Oscar for special effects.The story is quite simple. The Americans build a space rocket and send it to the Moon. It is nuclear powered, huge and shiny. It is ambitions, it is gonna take the combined effort of the entire might of the United States Industry and it's gonna cost them every bit of blood, sweat and tears they've got, but they'll make it.The propaganda is spread thick all over this ship ... err ... movie. There are all kinds of enemies out there who want the United States to fail and who would stop at nothing to make that happen. Fortunately for them, they don't have to try too hard, because the bad script and the stiff acting kill this mission far more successfully than they ever could. If you feel you're going too fast, some day, just watch this movie. It will slow you down in a jiffy. For example, they have a guy trying on a pair of boots for 5 minutes. Talk about a slow dresser! Obviously they do that only as long as they want to make a point, because after that they walk about with a spring in their heel, just like Fred Astaire on the ceiling. Aside from that, everything is just dandy.This is the first in a series of science-fiction movies produced by George Pal, who is also responsible for classics like "When Worlds Collide", "The War of the Worlds" "The Time Machine" and "Conquest of Space", of which I've seen the first three and intend to watch the fourth. I understand that this movie has sparked the crazy decades of science-fiction movies in the '50s and the '60s and if you decide to watch it then you will also understand why they had to come up with a whole bunch of monsters, alien invaders and 50 foot half naked babes: because otherwise they would have been just as boring as this movie is, obviously.Destination Moon. A great piece of history but... not much else. 6.3/10 is just about right, but only for history's sake.