The Shape of Things to Come (1979)
Planet Earth is a devastated wasteland, and what's left of humanity has colonized the Moon in domed cities. Humanity's continued survival depends on an anti-radiation drug only available on planet Delta Three, which has been taken over by Omus, a brilliant but mad mechanic who places no value on human life. Omus wants to come to the Moon to rule and intends to attack it by ramming robot-controlled spaceships into the domes. Dr. John Caball, his son Jason, Jason's friend, Kim, and a robot named Sparks embark on Caball's space battlecruiser on an unauthorized mission to Delta Three to stop Omus.
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Simply Perfect
Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,
This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.
THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME is a Canadian version of the famous H.G. Wells novel, although other than mankind colonising the Moon it seems to have little to do with that book. Instead it's a cheap and cheesy space opera, one of dozens rushed out in the wake of STAR WARS, and in terms of enjoyability, this can only be classed as so-bad-it's-good entertainment. A bunch of wooden actors work their way through cardboard sets and scenery while cheesy models stand in for space flight and the like. There are dumb robots ripped off from FORBIDDEN PLANET's Robbie and Jack Palance chewing the scenery in his own inimitable way as the villain of the piece. At least 'guest stars' Barry Morse and John Ireland have the grace to look embarrassed by their presence in this trashy, heavily dated production.
Yeah I know .. this film hits the fan pretty hard an spray's its cinematic excrement all around as it starts with what looks like a promising beginning (it's what it's promising i didn't like :P).The opening theme is ballsy enough and all to the visual of a big explosion. Should be good right?The start of the film actually looks like it'll be pretty sweet but very quickly you get to understand that this film is going to hurt. DEEEEEP HURTING!!Lazy script writing, bone headed plot devices, boring performances. It's pretty clear that the biggest problem here is that no one .. not the actors, not the crew .. and certainly not he script writer .. knew what film they were trying to make. Everyone's trying pretty hard to look sincere but this was a story that needed about $40,000,000 to tell, and not $3,000,000. Lets look at the good points:Cinematography and editing is pretty solid. At least the camera crew knew what they were doing, and the editor definitely did his best with the material provided.At least there's some familiar faces even if they're not utilized any where near their potential.Ermm ... I guess that's it :P I gotta admit personally I LOVED the music score. It's hard to discern why, it's just got something that I like. I've seen a lot of B movies and most suffer from mediocre music score .. whereas this one I just enjoy listening to that crazy title theme.Bottom Line .. this movie is f***ing awful, but it's one of those kinds of movies you'll love if you're a nut for B movies. It's soon bad that it's positively good. As someone else suggested .. it should be a cult classic for being bad. It's still not as bad as anything that Bert I. Gordon .. or Colman Francis made. And this film totally should have been riffed by MST3K .. I guess the only reason it wasn't was because of licensing rights.You won't be missing anything if you skip this title. But it's awesome for a crap-fest.
This should be in the top 100 worst movies of all time. Like many cult classics it improves with age as its unintentional hilarity increases with time. I saw Shape of Things to Come on opening night without the benefit of any advance reviews. At the time I felt that my hard earned part-time summer job savings had never been so wasted. However, now I split a gut in Plan 9 fashion with the added benefit of fast forward. Only if bad SciFi amuses you should you give this a try. The special effects are stunningly bad at times. Palance and Lynley mail in their performances (and for Lynley, think worse than Poseidon Adventure - yikes!). I don't know if this was ever on Mystery Science Theater 3000; but that would be the perfect venue for viewing this space junk.
Absolutely Awful! This movie has nothing in common with the 1936 classic movie with a similar title. I wonder what the "pitch" was like, "Let's remake one of the most important early science fiction movies written by of the great early science fiction writers.....but we are going to change everything but the title." Think of it as "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" remade and set in metropolitan Chicago about a young advertising executive, his hectic life, and a loveable dog named "Nemo"