Forbidden Planet (1956)

It's a sci-fi pilgrimage or epiphany to finally see the seminal film Forbidden Planet, starring (admit it) Robbie the Robot, not to mention a young (who knew?) Leslie Nielsen. I had to get this one from the public library since Netflix lists but doesn't stock it. Forbidden Planet is the fountain in the sci-fi sands from which sprang Star Trek, Lost in Space, Star Wars, and everything that came afterwards. It's more scientific, inventive, and psychological too. Don't critique its special effects against modern sci-fi offerings, since that is their forte while scientific accuracy and psychological drama is this film's. The scientific and creative bases for the sets and script are undisputably original and intelligent -- and after 51 years, they still beat any other movie that has since been made. (By the way, sci-fi movies universally favored flying saucers until Lost in Space in the mid-60s, after the Gemini, Mercury, and Apollo space programs taught us about rockets.) In short, I doubt we'd have had Star Trek, Lost in Space, Star Wars or any intelligent sci-fi (as opposed to monsters-in-space or monsters-from-space shoot-em-ups) without Forbidden Planet. Go, Robbie! 5 stars.