ctomvelu1 Forgettable early 1960s Italian-made space opera -- except for one thing. That one thing is 70-year-old Claude Rains playing a mad scientist. An asteroid that looks remarkably like a real planet and not all like a hunk of rock begins orbiting the Earth and sends out flying saucers that attack our space fleet. Before the military destroys it, a team of astronauts, including Rains, is sent to the asteroid to have a look at what's inside. Mostly, they find miles of suspended plastic tubing. Very talky, but anytime Rains is on-screen, the movie comes to life. His character is as daffy as the mad scientist he played in "The Invisible Man." Special effects are pathetic and the dubbing is typical for an Italian cheapie of the period.

MartinHafer On IMDb, a score of 4.0 is pretty poor, but STILL I think this is wild overrating this film. IL PIANETA DEGLI UOMINI SPENTI ("Battle of the Worlds") is a truly terrible sci-fi film with nothing to recommend it. A small part of the rottenness of this movie isn't the fault of the film makers. The DVD I just watched had one of the worst prints I have ever seen. The color was almost 100% drained out of the film. While there were some patches of the film that had very dull and muted color, other parts looked like the film was originally shot in black & white--it was that faded. However, the ravages of time cannot explain away most of the awfulness that was this film!For some inexplicable reason (it had to be money or they were holding a family member hostage), the well-respected British/American actor Claude Rains was featured in this film. This is pretty sad, as his part in the film was rather annoying and one-dimensional. He played a brilliant professor who seemed to have super-human knowledge and could use calculus to pretty much explain EVERYTHING. In addition, he had the social skills of a hyena and spent most of the film yelling at everyone and acting very, very superior. He didn't play a person, really, but more of a caricature. The plot involves some planet that just shows up in the solar system. Amazingly, no one seemed to spot it until it practically was ready to seemingly collide with the Earth. Now here's the stupid part. When the governments on Earth realize the collision is coming, they don't want to tell anyone because it will cause panic! What part of "giant planet colliding with the Earth" don't they understand?! If this IS inevitable, let the people panic--they're all going to die anyway in a few days! In the meantime, we are treated by lots of ground-breaking special effects such as the space station on Mars as well as the high tech rocket ships. I once saw similar effects--back when I had "Major Matt Mason" toys when I was a kid. I know this dates me, but for those in the 40-50 age range, you probably know what I am talking about here. In other words, these things all looked like very, very cheap toys...at best. Heck, in some cases, you can see the strings on the rockets and the explosions and lasers were so very obviously drawn in later. The folks at studios like American-International or Ed Wood would have laughed at the amateurness of the special effects.In addition to looking craptastic, the plot was amazingly dull and I had a hard time staying awake to see the movie to completion. The movie, in essence, consisted of toys flying about, Claude Rains overacting and embarrassing himself and a plot so amazingly uninteresting I just wanted to see everything collide and end the film...as soon as possible!Dull, dull, dull...and stupid. This one clearly has earned the lowest rating of 1.

Matthew Conn Wow. Really, wow. This movie has tons of potential, and goes absolutely nowhere! The special effects are top notch considering the time in which it was made. The technology smacks of the odd "computer" style of the sixties where lighted buttons with no labels dominated the sci-fi realm. Very "Star Trek"-esquire.That aside, the only saving grace of this film is Claude. His charatcer actually has life to it. It is a bit much, but considering his co-stars, it is no wonder why.The whole film is perfect to be ripped on. Get your sci-fi buddies, grab a bag of chips and some cheese dip, and wail away at this one. Tom Servo and Crow would be your best co-pilots on this journey into the horribly lame.

scifiguy-2 I happened to see this many times in the 1960's, at kiddie matinees in the theater. Imagine 50 cents for a triple feature every weekend, for years on end. There were a lot of dog films, but this one stood out with decent f/x and unique sound effects. It's one of the earliest space-operas depicting dog fighting ships in space, preceded only by the 1959 Toho production of "Battle In Outer Space". Say what you want about the bad voice dubbing and the unknown Italian cast. Films like this were not being produced in the U.S. during this period, due to lack of effects technology, and budget constraints. At the time, it was a bold attempt in a genre that was just beginning. Jaded modern viewers should see this in context within the history of fantasy films. Pure science fiction was rare during this period, and a treat for fans at the time. Claude Rains has some very good dialouge, as a cynical mathmatician guiding efforts to thwart alien invaders. The ships are well conceived, with the footage re-used in later films. Unfortunately, the editing is choppy and the video transfers that exist are very poor. It would be nice to see a widescreen restoration.