Simply A Masterpiece

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

I've just had a quick look through the reviews for this classic 50's sci-fi flick just in case someone had already covered the point I wanted to make. Having found no references to it I will press on. It seems obvious to me that Gerry Anderson drew inspiration from this film when he created his puppet TV shows. The launch system for the rocketship was used in Fireball XL5 and the landing sequence on Zyra is classic Thunderbirds. A great little film even if the science makes no sense whatsoever. Must have been quite gripping in a darkened cinema in 1952. Good special effects and a colourful new world. As for it being a white world in the film, well, it was a white world back then. I don't suppose they had room for a couple of maids and a shoe-shine boy never mind any pesky redskins.

I found myself wondering why it wasn't getting pretty darn hot on earth? It didn't seem to be. But - shouldn't it have been? I mean, the story tells us that there's a star - A STAR! - approaching the earth that's eventually going to collide with our planet and destroy us. A STAR!! Well, stars are pretty darn hot, you know. But as this one gets close to earth, our little blue planet doesn't really seem to heat up. I mean, this star called Bellus is called at one point a "giant star" - even though it's described as only a dozen times bigger than the earth, which actually makes it a lot smaller than the sun as well as a few of the larger planets in our solar system. But surely it would still be hot - if only because it's a star! Oh well. Go figure.It's 50's sci-fi. You can't take it too seriously. Some call this a sci-fi classic. I wouldn't go that far. In fact, I didn't even think it was especially good. Certainly, I've seen 50's sci-fi stuff that was more enjoyable. The attempts at science really threw me. When Bellus and its planet Zyra are discovered, it was noted that they had moved a million miles in two weeks. Which doesn't really seem that fast to me in interstellar terms. I wondered how this star approaching our solar system could have gone unnoticed until it was only three billion miles away (which would have put it well within the bounds of our own solar system.) A lot just seemed pretty strange. Of course, it might have just been that George Pal and his pals who made this realized that your average movie goer in 1951 probably wasn't all that up on astronomy, so they figured they could get away with it. It just bothered me all the way through, though.So, basically, this is a doomsday movie - and it's even introduced with a reference to the story of Noah and the ark from the Bible. And it's replete with the scepticism that always surrounds doomsday preachers, with good reason since they've all been wrong so far. But Dr. Hendron isn't wrong. He knows. Bellus will crush us unless we figure out a way to - well - get out of the way. So, conveniently, Bellus has this planet Zyra that might be able to support human life, so - what the heck - even though we only have a few months we'll build a giant spaceship and transport a few dozen people (and some puppies to make the little boy who hitched a ride happy) to this new world. OK. For the most part, everyone seems pretty calm about the coming apocalypse, although there is some panic at the end, and there was no real logic to how people were selected to be among the few dozen. Aside from a handful of hand picked folks, everybody else was just drawn by lot. There's a romance involved in this - because the end of the world should never get in the way of love - and it's passing strange that flying from Earth to Zyra is a little bit like flying from New York to Chicago - just get in your seat, fasten your seatbelt, and enjoy the ride. No word on whether there were complimentary snacks along the way.No. I didn't care much for this. 50's Sci-fi classic? Meh. I've seen better. To give credit where credit is due, though, I did like the special effects. I thought the scenes in which a major city (New York?) was flooded was quite well done. I did think they could have done a little better with the depiction of the surface of Zyra though. I waited through to the end, confident that they'd make it to Zyra and hoping to get a glimpse of what the new world would look like - and as it turned out it looked like it was painted on a canvass by a 7 year old. (3/10)

With all of its shortcomings I love this excellent little film, always have. I first saw it on UK ITV when a kid in the late 1960's - during one of the ad breaks an announcer had to advise viewers not to panic as it was only a coincidence (apparently) that its given date of August 12th Doomsday was also the date it was being screened. And that the film was entirely fictitious. I've always found it incredible that some people could still be so credulous in the '60's and that it appears the opposite is usually true nowadays.Two rogue planets are discovered to be on a close pass/collision course with Earth, dedicated scientist-brains lead dedicated teams to plan and build rocket to hopefully transport and save a few lucky surviving humans to the new world. Laid out in a typical Hollywood soap opus style with an icky love story and oodles of self-sacrifice in the face of impending hideous mass death it still grips - it's open simplicity saves it from being either a cornfest or boring. Although it's been dated for over 40 years it's still interesting for its procession of stereotypical people and emotions and the range of allegorical situations presented. With but a single moralisation stemming from the two jealous love rivals, boxes of urgent medical supplies are flown to a stranded group of people that everyone including us know are all going to be incinerated in a few days. But overall dog eat dog after all. I always hope classy heroine Barbara Rush will scream in horror directly at the camera as she did later in It Came From Outer Space but no such luck in here. Hunky hero Richard Derr never looked more like Danny Kaye. I think the special effects won an Oscar in 1951 ... um, time has taken its usual toll – however it's still an essential sci-fi film to watch, especially if you're into the (history of the) genre.

Even though its visuals have dated somewhat since its original release back in 1951, "When Worlds Collide" is still an interesting "End-of-the-World" Sci-Fi fable, no matter what anybody says to the contrary.Brilliant scientist, Dr. Cole Hendron tries to convince a doubting world that Earth is in the direct path of a rogue planet called Bellus that's about the size of our Sun. And a collision with it is inevitable.With no time to lose, wealthy financier, Sydney Stanton orders the immediate construction of a giant spaceship to transport selected survivors safely to a distant planet known as Zyra.A world lottery is held in order to determine who is to travel to Zyra on this astounding spacecraft.The special effects (which includes the submersion of Manhattan) won an Oscar for this impressive, technicolor, "George Pal" production.Just convince yourself that "When Worlds Collide" could really happen and I guarantee that you'll enjoy this throughly entertaining picture from start to finish.