Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Halloween Horror Watch #36: The Man from Planet X

The Man from Planet X -- Edgar G. Ulmer



The Man from Planet X is pretty unremarkable in nearly every way. Maybe I'm burning out on '50s sci-fi, but there is a considerable lack of charm in this movie. The titular man from Planet X is a terrible design and the way our heroes fight him is to grapple until they can turn off his air supply. Sure, it makes sense, but it's not very interesting to watch. Yes, there's one woman amongst scientists and yes, she gets captured by the alien. I don't feel the need to talk about that again, but there's another trope that is growing tiresome. The megalomaniacal scientist. He became a scientist for fame, fortune, and power and for some reason, the good scientists keep him around. Usually, they already know he has ulterior motives or a questionable reputation. Inevitably, he is responsible for the ensuing turmoil and most of the body count in these movies. He's a pretty lame stock character and The Man from Planet X is a pretty lame movie.

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