Tuesday, May 18, 2010

S01E09 - Project Moonbase

Plot

Short: Commando Cody continues his attempts to stop the saboteurs that are softening Earth's defenses for the moon men invasion, but continues to be thwarted at every turn. Unable to capture one of the moon men's weapons on Earth, he makes the decision to steal the weapon's material from the moon itself and makes another trip with his rocket to the lunar surface.

Film: Two space pilots are about to attempt a dangerous mission to pilot a lunar craft around the dark side of the moon to take recon photos for a planned moon station on the lunar surface. However, an enemy organization plans to use this mission as an opportunity to destroy the space station that currently orbits around the Earth and remains a thorn in their side. Kidnapping a third member of the lunar mission, they plant their own spy in the hopes of destroying the space station once and for all.


Movie Review

Cody, Cody, Cody. You really are getting desperate, aren't you? And I mean really, really, really desperate. Why do I say this? Because almost everything featured in the two serial segments of Radar Men from the Moon showed in this episode are taken directly from previous serial episodes of Cody's adventures. And I mean that with no hyperbole. We have yet another fist fight, yet another cliffhanger featured a destroyed plane (with the same escape of bailing out), yet another flight to the moon, and yet another fight with a tank. Did the writers really have to become this complacent in thinking up new episode ideas? They're not even trying anymore.

There's really nothing more to say. Honestly, there isn't. Commando Cody has done everything he can to impress, and he's fallen flat. Now he's rehashing the same prat falls. Eight episodes and nothing to show for it. Pitiful.

Okay, maybe one more thing to show for it: the most ridiculous cliffhanger resolution I've ever seen. At the end of episode six, Cody is knocked unconscious by a thrown rock and falls down a cliff to his doom. At the start of episode seven, he awakens from his green screen fall just in time to turn on his jetpack and soar into the air. It would've been much more amusing had he had been pointing toward the cliff when he turned it on, I think.

And now for the movie...oh, wait. Did I say movie? I'm sorry, there is no movie in this episode. Why? Because Project Moonbase is not a movie, it's a soap opera. A soap opera in space, but that's pretty much what it is. Oh, it tries to masquerade as a thriller, but it pulls it off about as well as...well, they pull of everything else, and with this being MST3K, you know what that means.

Now when I say this is not a movie, I mean it has no plot. I'm sure I've made this charge before with other films, but this film really and truly has no meaningful plot. It's like someone chose a random moment in time, started filming, then stopped an hour and a half later. Actions happen and people do stuff, but no plot advances. Over two thirds of the film are absent of that essential ingredient in a film - conflict - and the remaining third is in very short supply itself.

Here's an example of what I mean: the film is supposedly about a saboteur trying to destroy the space station, but any "action" coming from this conflict lasts all of two minutes. After this moment, the following stuff happens: the lunar ship lands on the moon, the saboteur agrees to help but is killed by an accident, the lunar ship is established as a lunar base, a marriage occurs, the end credits roll. If there is an interesting and coherent plot in this filled with any kind of drama, you won't find it in this boring reel of celluloid.

This film also displays one of the more bizarre moments of sexism I've seen yet on MST3K, even more bizarre than Ro-Man's interest in undressing a human female in Robot Monster. The female lead of this film, Col. Briteis, outranks the male protagonist, Major Moore, because of her weight class and others believe Moore is the better pilot. This could've been used as an interesting lesson in jealousy, but instead things borderline on blatant misogyny when the General tells Briteis she's a spoiled brat, her skills are inferior compared to Moore's, and if she doesn't like it, she will be spanked. Yes, spanked. And there's nothing playful or sarcastic about the way this scene is handled; she is actually threatened with a spanking for essentially being a woman. Wow. When coupled with the revelation that the US president is a woman in this film, the flagrant display of sexism is pretty jarring.

If there is one aspect about this film that I actually liked, it's the movie's desire for realism in its depiction of space travel. Sure, several things are incorrect, such as the enormous interior space of the rocket ships, the hammocks used for chairs during engine use, and the ridiculous cranium helmets, but compared to the space travel of Commando Cody, Project Moonbase does surprisingly well. The depiction of G-force as something more than what is found on a carnival ride is especially welcome. Considering this movie was shot in 1953, almost a decade before the first human space flight, it's apparent someone did a little bit of research in depicting space flight here.

Sadly, this attention to detail didn't extend to the characters and the nonexistent plot, which could've used a lot of polish, spit shine, and waxing before being even remotely worthwhile. Everything in this movie is plodding, dull, and just plain boring. It's a snippet of a home video that just happens to involve rocketships. In short, it's just bad...



MST3K Review

...which makes it all the more surprising that this was an enjoyable episode from Joel and the bots. From beginning to end (okay, maybe near the end), the riffs came hard and fast and were ruthless and sharp in their wit. The sharpness extended to the Cody shorts as well, if only thanks to several pieces of cardboard.

Apparently, the MST3K crew are as sick of Cody as I am and are privy to his tricks, because during the fist fight in the short, Joel held up several silhouettes of "Pow" and "Blam" akin to the Adam West "Batman" series. That's it, Joel, bring Cody and his generic fisticuffs down a peg! The hilarity extends into the film itself, during a segment where one of the characters provides a painfully boring exposition piece to explain how gravity generates orbits. Joel holds up several large pieces of cardboard to simulate the movie character reading from a series of cue cards, which is pulled of brilliantly. While I'm not a fan of Joel's frequent interaction with the screen using his silhouette, these moments were perfectly executed.

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