After seeing Tim Burton's loving biopic of Ed Wood, criticising this movie is a little hard on the conscience. Johnny Depp's performance was so endearing that insulting the real Ed Wood is on about the same level as punching a sleeping baby in the face. But that's not going to stop me from stating the obvious; that Plan 9 is a big piece of crap.
As bad as it is, there are loads of movies that better deserve the reputation of being the worst ever made. Batman Forever is far worse, and less excusable not just because it had a huge budget and actors who could actually act, but because it managed to kill the credibility that Tim Burton had brought with his two perfect movies. Independence Day is insultingly dumb and wasted every one of its actors, and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is British mockney cinema at its worst, and houses the lamest performance in the history of film. These big budget, widely-distributed, well-cast, money-making turds are far worse than something like Plan 9 because they had more potential; it doesn't come as anything of a surprise to discover that a B-movie from the 50s isn't a work of genius.
But what separates these and other stinkers from Plan 9 is that it isn't just bad, it's painfully inept. It's one of the few movies that is genuinely beyond spoof. There's no way to parody a film that opens with the line, `We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives.' Criswell's narration is by far the worst (and therefore best) thing in the film, providing such gems as, `The ever-beautiful flowers she had planted with her own hands became nothing more than the lost roses of her cheeks." It's such a shame that Wood actually thought this had some kind of depth, or even some kind of meaning!
The stupidity of the narration is matched by most of the dialogue, and seeing the same shot of Bela Lugosi three times and then his obvious body double brings the film closer to its reputation. But while these bits are so bad they're good, the rest of the film is just bad. It's never fun to watch a boring movie, and the dull patches throughout stop its cack-handedness from being fully enjoyable.
Poor old Ed Wood. He couldn't even make a bad movie consistently bad enough to be good! But you at least have to admire his ambition, however misplaced it may have been. He was a bad writer, a bad director and a bad producer; truly a multi-talentless man.
As bad as it is, there are loads of movies that better deserve the reputation of being the worst ever made. Batman Forever is far worse, and less excusable not just because it had a huge budget and actors who could actually act, but because it managed to kill the credibility that Tim Burton had brought with his two perfect movies. Independence Day is insultingly dumb and wasted every one of its actors, and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is British mockney cinema at its worst, and houses the lamest performance in the history of film. These big budget, widely-distributed, well-cast, money-making turds are far worse than something like Plan 9 because they had more potential; it doesn't come as anything of a surprise to discover that a B-movie from the 50s isn't a work of genius.
But what separates these and other stinkers from Plan 9 is that it isn't just bad, it's painfully inept. It's one of the few movies that is genuinely beyond spoof. There's no way to parody a film that opens with the line, `We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives.' Criswell's narration is by far the worst (and therefore best) thing in the film, providing such gems as, `The ever-beautiful flowers she had planted with her own hands became nothing more than the lost roses of her cheeks." It's such a shame that Wood actually thought this had some kind of depth, or even some kind of meaning!
The stupidity of the narration is matched by most of the dialogue, and seeing the same shot of Bela Lugosi three times and then his obvious body double brings the film closer to its reputation. But while these bits are so bad they're good, the rest of the film is just bad. It's never fun to watch a boring movie, and the dull patches throughout stop its cack-handedness from being fully enjoyable.
Poor old Ed Wood. He couldn't even make a bad movie consistently bad enough to be good! But you at least have to admire his ambition, however misplaced it may have been. He was a bad writer, a bad director and a bad producer; truly a multi-talentless man.