First Spaceship on Venus

Despite being rather well-made, this cold war space exploration flick is rather dull -- even in the climactic third act. It does feature a multiracial crew which was way ahead of it's time and some good sets, so it is worth a view.

There's actual science fiction in this sci-fi movie, with a fair number of interesting ideas, but it's executed in a seriously confused manner. The English dub doesn't help.

Better than these things usually are. I loved what for the time must've been something of a sight gag: in the opening scene an apparently designated bimbo is talking to some guy, then the proceedings start and she turns out to be a camera operator! lol

Mst3k. Actually not that bad in that campy sort of way.

Interesting visuals, but a jumbled plot. Seems like the Russians were conveying Michael Bay decades too early.

*I watched the original East German/Polish version 'Der schweigende Stern' of 93 minutes.* It's as if the Space Race never happened, in fact the entire Cold War never happened. This is the lamest anti-nuclear proliferation film that I have come across yet, but some of the visuals are at least cool.

What can I say? Not only is this movie bad, but horribly unwatchable.

Better than I was expecting. The main problem is the constant exposition, first in the form of reporters then when one of the crew keeps a journal, which I felt ground the film to a halt in some scenes. At the very least, it made it much, much harder to properly develop any of the characters or their relationships. However, I enjoyed the progressive message and the set design was pretty fantastic. (I saw the 130 minute German language version)

I fell asleep watching it on MST3K.

science fiction has come a long way

Great for its time.

The sequences on Venus are nifty, but very slow and dry.

Not terrible just quite dull. I can't tell if it's dull because of the terrible dub, the bad quality MST3k recording, or the movie itself.

An East German SF movie based on a Stanislaw Lem story? Incorporating the Tunguska event? With a multi-ethnic cast? Yay! Ambitious and very nicely designed; too bad the dubbing and the DVD transfer are the only two jokes in the whole movie. Supposedly there's a 130 minute version out there that works better.

Mst3k score: 5/10