Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Highly Overrated But Still Good

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

This legendary Republic serial is certainly vigorously staged: - chariot races, atom guns, a whizzy armored car, a night-time siege on a walled city, an exploding mountain, a disintegrator ray, flying torpedoes, crazy planes, a mad scientist, an "I'll rule the world or destroy it!" despot, weird robots, a gladiatorial combat. Yes, this movie has everything: pulp plotting, risibly incredible situations, laughable dialogue, quasi-science, pasteboard characters, ham acting, side-splitting costumes and lots of ingeniously primitive special effects. But it's all mighty enjoyable entertainment, both for run of the mill audiences and the ultra-sophisticated. The former will become pleasurably involved in the movie, the latter will find it a real hoot. It's hard to believe that all this action with all these costumed extras milling around, plus all the special effects gadgetry, were realized on such a minuscule budget. The negative cost for the entire serial was only $99,222. It took less than a month (from 3 March to 28 March 1936 inclusive) to shoot.A lot of the technical work is highly professional too (photography, film editing - despite some ill-matching ancient stock footage in the opening episode), though the music score is one of the most entertainingly pedestrian we've ever heard. It tones in delightfully with the corny efforts of the players (though it must be admitted that Crash is certainly an athletic enough hero, and Miss Wilde, if dowdily costumed, makes a pretty enough heroine).

I found the entire serial on two DVDs for the bargain-price of $5 a piece. I honestly only got the first six because the guy was, well, undressed except for a cape and a helmet and these really cool boots. Otherwise he looked like he was in his underwear.I really loved the over the top acting and the, for then, cool special effects. That the producers seemed to enjoy finding the slimmest excuse to put Our Hero into cheek revealing outfits and at one point literally strapping him spread-eagle to a moving "car" smacks of almost unbelievable camp. That this stuff passed muster during The Code is even more amazing.As to weather the cliffhangers cheat; OK they cheat. But in a way I sort of enjoy the original cliffhanger version. Crash gets blown up, dropped down an elevator shaft, smashed into a wooden door (with the aforementioned "car"), dropped from great heights and others too numerous to mention. I don't love that his "sidekick" is either a young boy who worships him and that he seems a bit too attached to (witness his reaction when Billy falls down a facing). His other "sidekick" is an enemy he saves, only to have the poor sap pine for Our Hero until he is killed, just to assure Crash's engagement to The Girl.This movie is definitely a repeat offender. But it is fun nonetheless. Invite your friends over and have a drinking party where everyone takes a belt whenever Crash shows his ass. You'll be plowed before the night is out.Bad, silly, obvious. But not nearly as crappy as Bad Boys 2.I give this one a Thumbs Up!

Granted it is not like our cliff hangers today but enjoyed watching it. It had no foul language or off color jokes. It is a good family friendly series. It keeps the attention of the viewer. I like older movies anyway(there cleaner than the filth that HELLYWOODS putting out today).

Republic Pictures 12-chapter serial, Undersea Kingdom, borrows many elements from the Flash Gordon story: a "yellow menace"-type villain, a scientist and his futuristic craft (this time a rocket submarine rather than a rocketship), a vanquished foe spared in combat becoming a staunch ally, and finally the heroes name Crash (rhymes with...). You can see the beginnings of the great serial factory Republic was to become, with decent fights and excellent special effects for 1936. Pacing is sluggish and it contains some horrendous cliffhanger cheats. For example, when Crash is SEEN plummeting down an elevator shaft and the next episode begins with his falling through the open elevator doors, reaching out and clutching the edge of the doorway preventing his fall. I would not recommend seeing this serial in one go because the cheats would be less abrasive if the chapters were viewed with some time in between. I rate this serial a 7.0 (Review: 1; 11/2002)