The short two hour look at a couple of Scifi subjects via film clips (from trailers) is a companion piece to the similar One Hundred Years of Horror. This is a history of science fiction told through a few interviews as well as with clips from various movies culled from movie trailers which are in the public domain. Like the horror film this film also has a longer 26 part version. However where the short Horror film made you want to see the longer version (which is a masterpiece of Horror history when viewed in its entirety), this makes you want to move on to the next thing. Its a shame since the longer 26 part version of this film is actually pretty good. Its not the horror series but its still fun to watch thanks to all of the clips that it contains. The short version is narrated by Christopher Lee who simply links some of the segments with some oblique references.(Lee is not in the long version). Given the choice I'd opt for the longer version and skip this short one.
7 Reviews
An Overview of 20th Century Science Fiction...
Space_Mafune19 August 2003
this film, narrated by the one and only Christopher Lee, suffers greatly in its callous dismissal of many wonderful B-movie classics and the fact it doesn't give near enough focus to the most important decade of all for 20th Century Sci-Fi: the 1950s!
Still this is a fascinating film to watch as it provides a pretty thorough examination of the many elements which make up the genre we today call science fiction. All in all not bad of its type.
Still this is a fascinating film to watch as it provides a pretty thorough examination of the many elements which make up the genre we today call science fiction. All in all not bad of its type.
Low budget trailer footage series
Leofwine_draca26 September 2019
Warning: Spoilers
The version I watched was on Amazon Prime and consisted of 19 episodes, each bookended by identical Christopher Lee narration. The episodes mainly consist of trailer footage and sometimes brief interviews with celebrities. They're ordered thus:
1) AFTER THE END - post-apocalypse movies like THE OMEGA MAN, THE LAST WOMAN ON EARTH, MAD MAX and the like. 2) ALIEN LIFE FORMS - THE MOLE PEOPLE and THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL feature predominantly, alongside more modern fare like PREDATOR. 3) AMAZING INVENTIONS - featuring STAR TREK teleporters plus THE TIME MACHINE and, randomly, SPACEBALLS. 4) ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE - running the gamut from 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY to SHORT CIRCUIT, and randomly SUPERMAN 3 too. 5) DINOSAURS - a seemingly endless collection of clips from old and creaky black and white B-movies. 6) END OF THE WORLD - with WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE headlining, this is interchangeable with the first episode. 7) FINAL FRONTIER - space exploration movies like ANGRY RED PLANET and DESTINATION MOON. 8) FUTURE WORLDS - the likes of THE RUNNING MAN and DEATH RACE 2000 feature strongly here. 9) H.G. WELLS - various clips from the copious adaptations of his work, with extra Michael York for the fans. 10) LOST WORLDS - predominantly looking at the various adaptations of novels by the likes of Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs. 11) MAD SCIENTISTS - somewhat literary, with Shelley and Stevenson featuring, although Eddie Murphy lowers the tone considerably. Good to see RE-ANIMATOR here, but why Bond? 12) MUTATIONS - i.e. were-people. '80s highlights include TEEN WOLF and CAT PEOPLE...and, again randomly, HIGHLANDER! 13) POWERS OF THE MIND - from the literary origins of the genre, with Stevenson and Dr Faustus, through THE EYES OF LAURA MARS and THE DEAD ZONE to THE MAN WITH TWO BRAINS. 14) QUEENS OF SCI FI -Zsa Zsa Gabor in all her glory, plus copious CAT WOMEN OF THE MOON footage alongside METROPOLIS and, er, LIFEFORCE. 15) ROBOTS - METROPOLIS again, alongside old-time serials such as UNDERSEA KINGDOM and THE PHANTOM CREEPS. 16) SPAWN OF THE ATOM - various low rent nuclear scare flicks of the 1950s feature here. 17) U.F.O.S - THIS ISLAND EARTH nestles alongside PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE and INVADERS FROM MARS. 18) SCI-FI STARS - random clips from PLANET OF THE APES, THE TERMINATOR, PREDATOR and many more. 19) SCI-FI HEROES - more randomness with THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT, FLASH GORDON, ROBOCOP and back to MAD MAX again.
1) AFTER THE END - post-apocalypse movies like THE OMEGA MAN, THE LAST WOMAN ON EARTH, MAD MAX and the like. 2) ALIEN LIFE FORMS - THE MOLE PEOPLE and THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL feature predominantly, alongside more modern fare like PREDATOR. 3) AMAZING INVENTIONS - featuring STAR TREK teleporters plus THE TIME MACHINE and, randomly, SPACEBALLS. 4) ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE - running the gamut from 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY to SHORT CIRCUIT, and randomly SUPERMAN 3 too. 5) DINOSAURS - a seemingly endless collection of clips from old and creaky black and white B-movies. 6) END OF THE WORLD - with WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE headlining, this is interchangeable with the first episode. 7) FINAL FRONTIER - space exploration movies like ANGRY RED PLANET and DESTINATION MOON. 8) FUTURE WORLDS - the likes of THE RUNNING MAN and DEATH RACE 2000 feature strongly here. 9) H.G. WELLS - various clips from the copious adaptations of his work, with extra Michael York for the fans. 10) LOST WORLDS - predominantly looking at the various adaptations of novels by the likes of Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs. 11) MAD SCIENTISTS - somewhat literary, with Shelley and Stevenson featuring, although Eddie Murphy lowers the tone considerably. Good to see RE-ANIMATOR here, but why Bond? 12) MUTATIONS - i.e. were-people. '80s highlights include TEEN WOLF and CAT PEOPLE...and, again randomly, HIGHLANDER! 13) POWERS OF THE MIND - from the literary origins of the genre, with Stevenson and Dr Faustus, through THE EYES OF LAURA MARS and THE DEAD ZONE to THE MAN WITH TWO BRAINS. 14) QUEENS OF SCI FI -Zsa Zsa Gabor in all her glory, plus copious CAT WOMEN OF THE MOON footage alongside METROPOLIS and, er, LIFEFORCE. 15) ROBOTS - METROPOLIS again, alongside old-time serials such as UNDERSEA KINGDOM and THE PHANTOM CREEPS. 16) SPAWN OF THE ATOM - various low rent nuclear scare flicks of the 1950s feature here. 17) U.F.O.S - THIS ISLAND EARTH nestles alongside PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE and INVADERS FROM MARS. 18) SCI-FI STARS - random clips from PLANET OF THE APES, THE TERMINATOR, PREDATOR and many more. 19) SCI-FI HEROES - more randomness with THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT, FLASH GORDON, ROBOCOP and back to MAD MAX again.
Not bad, but don't binge
jimmaclachlan121 May 2021
Warning: Spoilers
If, like me, you're something of a SF movie buff, I recommend watching the first episode & then skipping through to find those of interest. Each episode concentrates on a theme or a person. H. G. Wells, Verne, & Harryhausen each have one. Robots, time travel, & other themes are also covered with short clips from the earliest movies into the 1990s.
After binge watching 16 of the 26 episodes, I'm pretty much done. While there is some good information & I found a few movies to watch, there's just too much repetition. Quite a few clips & their narration are used multiple times, often as fillers in topics where they're not a great fit. For instance, the same clip of "Colossus: The Forbin Project" is used in robots & mind control, but the latter dealt mostly with through PSI, critters, or drugs, & didn't make it clear that Colossus did it through coercion. Not a good fit. Worse, they missed some of the finest examples such as "The Power" (1968).
The subjects were interesting, but lacked depth. The episode on Ray Harryhausen, the preeminent special effects creator of the 50s & 60s didn't mention any of his awards or difficulties. His skeleton scene in "Jason & the Argonauts" (1963) often makes the '10 Best' lists & took months of 20+ hour days due to the limitations of the tech, especially the lighting. The actors had to exactly follow his direction without any props so their film could be blended with that of the skeletons. It was an incredible feat from all concerned.
Christopher Lee's narration role was pretty much limited to a canned introduction & wrap. It was ponderous, so I skipped it after viewing once. He did more narration in one episode that was pretty good (Ep 8?).
I've listed a lot of gripes, but I don't think my time was wasted. I picked up a few movies to watch & a few more to rewatch. While there weren't any great revelations, there was some food for thought & some wry humor. When introducing "Damnation Alley" they said, "Realizing what Hollywood would do to his novel, Zelazny just took the money & ran." Perfect! Jan Michael-Vincent was certainly no Hell Tanner.
After binge watching 16 of the 26 episodes, I'm pretty much done. While there is some good information & I found a few movies to watch, there's just too much repetition. Quite a few clips & their narration are used multiple times, often as fillers in topics where they're not a great fit. For instance, the same clip of "Colossus: The Forbin Project" is used in robots & mind control, but the latter dealt mostly with through PSI, critters, or drugs, & didn't make it clear that Colossus did it through coercion. Not a good fit. Worse, they missed some of the finest examples such as "The Power" (1968).
The subjects were interesting, but lacked depth. The episode on Ray Harryhausen, the preeminent special effects creator of the 50s & 60s didn't mention any of his awards or difficulties. His skeleton scene in "Jason & the Argonauts" (1963) often makes the '10 Best' lists & took months of 20+ hour days due to the limitations of the tech, especially the lighting. The actors had to exactly follow his direction without any props so their film could be blended with that of the skeletons. It was an incredible feat from all concerned.
Christopher Lee's narration role was pretty much limited to a canned introduction & wrap. It was ponderous, so I skipped it after viewing once. He did more narration in one episode that was pretty good (Ep 8?).
I've listed a lot of gripes, but I don't think my time was wasted. I picked up a few movies to watch & a few more to rewatch. While there weren't any great revelations, there was some food for thought & some wry humor. When introducing "Damnation Alley" they said, "Realizing what Hollywood would do to his novel, Zelazny just took the money & ran." Perfect! Jan Michael-Vincent was certainly no Hell Tanner.
Horrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiibbbbbbllllllllllle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
asela_atukorala24 January 2006
This is one of the worst documentaries ever made. Most of the Sci-Fi films featured were B-Movie clips. Even when it showed clips of better films, the quality was bad. When Christopher Lee was talking, you could see cutout lines from the bluescreen. The animation was terrible. When I saw this, I thought it was Chistopher Lee's grandson's high school project, but no, it was an actual company. It said "2 Hour Special" on the DVD Cover when it really went only for 1 hr 40 - 45 min. It gave none or not enough information about Star Trek films, E.T., Close Encounters Of The Third Kind and the Star Wars films. I think some amateur film-makers could make a better documentary than this.
Poor research - limited scope - repetitive
Bernie444421 October 2023
This is a series of partial trailers and sound bites. It, of course, being 1998 is a tad dated but that can be overlooked.
Several times the narrator misses the point or misinterprets the films being displayed. Occasionally, he is quite funny. However, for the most part, he makes statements like the story 1984 was made into two films; he does not state which two films: 1984 - Studio One (1953) S6 E1 Eddie Albert as Winston Smith 1984 (1954) Peter Cushing as Winston Smith 1984 (1956) Edmond O'Brien as Winston Smith Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) John Hurt as Winston smith
In the book "The Time Machine" by H. G. Wells the two races were created by economic or class differences. In the movie, it was where one chose to live (above or below ground). The narrator of this presentation said it was a class or economic problem.
We get similar misinterpretations on "The Planet of the Apes" film clips.
The actual section on H. G. Wells did a decent job of describing H. G. and his approach to authoring his novels. They did a good contrast of different versions of "The Island of Dr. Moreau."
Talking about repartition, many of the clips are used over and over again; to their credit, the narration is different over the same clip.
Several times the narrator misses the point or misinterprets the films being displayed. Occasionally, he is quite funny. However, for the most part, he makes statements like the story 1984 was made into two films; he does not state which two films: 1984 - Studio One (1953) S6 E1 Eddie Albert as Winston Smith 1984 (1954) Peter Cushing as Winston Smith 1984 (1956) Edmond O'Brien as Winston Smith Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) John Hurt as Winston smith
In the book "The Time Machine" by H. G. Wells the two races were created by economic or class differences. In the movie, it was where one chose to live (above or below ground). The narrator of this presentation said it was a class or economic problem.
We get similar misinterpretations on "The Planet of the Apes" film clips.
The actual section on H. G. Wells did a decent job of describing H. G. and his approach to authoring his novels. They did a good contrast of different versions of "The Island of Dr. Moreau."
Talking about repartition, many of the clips are used over and over again; to their credit, the narration is different over the same clip.
Endless
Hitchcoc18 April 2018
I watched the entire series and about half way through began to calcify. It was fun to see so many B-movie trailers, but when they started showing up for the third or fourth time, I realized that this was an editing project. Each episode has a focus: artificial intelligence, dinosaurs, and on and on. Obviously, many great movies were left out because rights to them would have been pretty expensive. Also, the script was really dull. I could tell the narrator was getting bored at times because we are talking about sixteen hours or more. There is very little new or educational about this.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
