The Shape of Things to Come |
  • Canada • 1979 • 98m •   • Directed by: George McCowan. • Starring: Jack Palance, Carol Lynley, Barry Morse, John Ireland, Nicholas Campbell, Anne-Marie Martin, Greg Swanson, Mark Parr, William Hutt, Ardon Bess, Lynda Mason Green, Albert Humphries, Bill Lake. • Music by: Paul Hoffert.      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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Review:
The movie starts out with humanity on the moon in a dome where two old codgers discuss the need for a military right before a huge ship is sent crashing into said dome leaving massive damage that we only see very little off. Jack Palance is once again the evil force we must stop on his planet where they make this drug that somehow can stop radiation or something. A group commandeers a ship because stopping this guy is not a priority and the old man is irradiated for reasons unknown because it added nothing to the plot. He, his son, a girl and a suicide robot blast off and are in space for a bit before their ship needs repairs so they set down on earth...what!?! You've been flying all this time and earth is where you're setting down and you blasted off from the moon!?! Ship's not very fast now is it? On the earth they discover irradiated children that they promise they will bring back medicine before flying and discussing books and coming across a strange thing that makes the crew trip out! Finally they arrive on the bad guy planet, though not sure how considering how slow the ship is, but once you're on the planet you can see they are in the exact same place where those children were found...
Jack Palance was in some really terrible films, usually playing a bad guy and generally playing someone younger than what he was. Here his old mentor is probably his age just like in Hawk the Slayer he was about the same age as the guy playing his father. I understand needing a paycheck, but go over to Italy or something and do some of their films, more fun and you might not get bonked on the head with a beam like happened in this film!
So this film is quite bad as there is very little action and most of the film is just pushing buttons and such. The fight with the robots consisted of humans getting bashed in the head with rocks and thrown against walls because no budget for fancy space weapons here! We get the same locales throughout too as like I said the earth scene with the kids was clearly used in the scenes of the evil guy's planet. Give me a Corman film with less budget any day, I guarantee it is going to be more entertaining than this!
Review by Aaron1375 from the Internet Movie Database.
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