I find most early black-and-white space exploration movies kind of sweet and funny. I like the optimism that was prevalent at the time, the belief that by 1980 space exploration technology would have advanced to the point of being mundane. But of all the space movies shown on Mystery Science Theater 3000, (a list that includes "12 to the Moon", "The Phantom Planet", and "Fire Maidens of Outer Space") none p***ed me off except the Bert I. Gordon stinker "King Dinosaur".
In this stupid, stupid movie, four scientists (2 guys and 2 gals, for necking purposes) are sent up to the newly discovered planet Nova. Nova is populated by lots of animals, some normal (like the cute monkey Joe), some giant (like the titular King Dinosaur). The "scientists" wander around like mundane tourists, gawking at one crappy special effect after another. Eventually the King becomes a threat to them (he's a dinosaur, for Christ's sake!), so they drop a nuclear bomb on the planet and take off. "We brought civilization to planet Nova," one chucklehead says. I would've added a scene where they discover all too late that instead of traveling to another planet they are actually in Earth's past, and by dropping the atom bomb on the innocent dinosaurs they obliterated Earth's future and, consequently, their own despicable lives.
What's wrong with this movie? Where to start? Ignoring the less than flattering depiction of women and the carefree way they toss around Joe (sometimes swinging him by his tail), there's the gruesome dino fights, in which real lizards are forced to maim each other while suffering the indignity of having silly fins glued to their backs. But worst of all are the self-obsessed characters and the jingoistic tone of the film. This movie is so wrong that one hopes it's a tongue-in-cheek parody, but I'm convinced the filmmakers were sincere (I'm betting the blame rests on producer Robert Lippert's shoulders, since so many of the same chauvinistic, fascist themes are in his awful "Jungle Goddess", another MST3K experiment).
In this stupid, stupid movie, four scientists (2 guys and 2 gals, for necking purposes) are sent up to the newly discovered planet Nova. Nova is populated by lots of animals, some normal (like the cute monkey Joe), some giant (like the titular King Dinosaur). The "scientists" wander around like mundane tourists, gawking at one crappy special effect after another. Eventually the King becomes a threat to them (he's a dinosaur, for Christ's sake!), so they drop a nuclear bomb on the planet and take off. "We brought civilization to planet Nova," one chucklehead says. I would've added a scene where they discover all too late that instead of traveling to another planet they are actually in Earth's past, and by dropping the atom bomb on the innocent dinosaurs they obliterated Earth's future and, consequently, their own despicable lives.
What's wrong with this movie? Where to start? Ignoring the less than flattering depiction of women and the carefree way they toss around Joe (sometimes swinging him by his tail), there's the gruesome dino fights, in which real lizards are forced to maim each other while suffering the indignity of having silly fins glued to their backs. But worst of all are the self-obsessed characters and the jingoistic tone of the film. This movie is so wrong that one hopes it's a tongue-in-cheek parody, but I'm convinced the filmmakers were sincere (I'm betting the blame rests on producer Robert Lippert's shoulders, since so many of the same chauvinistic, fascist themes are in his awful "Jungle Goddess", another MST3K experiment).