Excursion dans la lune (1908)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
French film from de Chomon is a big(ger) budgeted remake of Georges Melies' A TRIP TO THE MOON. Once again a group of men build a spaceship and shoot for the moon where they find that they're unwelcome. The original Melies film has rightfully become a truly legendary film and this remake is certainly watered-down and weaker. For starters, the Melies film was truly an epic for its day but this thing here pretty much cuts out all the story and instead just goes for the better known moments. These include the building of the ship, the rocket launch and of course the scene where they land but instead of going into the moon's eye we're greeted with the ship landing in its mouth. The only minor advantage to any of these sequences is that they're obviously working with a larger budget but in the end this means very little as the imagination simply isn't here. This thing clocks in at just over 7-minutes and I must admit that there were times where I found myself yawning. Towards the end of the film we get a mini-dance sequence that really adds very little to the movie. EXCURSION TO THE MOON isn't a bad film by any stretch of the imagination and I'm sure sci-fi fans will want to watch it but be sure you check out the original version first.
** 1/2 (out of 4)
French film from de Chomon is a big(ger) budgeted remake of Georges Melies' A TRIP TO THE MOON. Once again a group of men build a spaceship and shoot for the moon where they find that they're unwelcome. The original Melies film has rightfully become a truly legendary film and this remake is certainly watered-down and weaker. For starters, the Melies film was truly an epic for its day but this thing here pretty much cuts out all the story and instead just goes for the better known moments. These include the building of the ship, the rocket launch and of course the scene where they land but instead of going into the moon's eye we're greeted with the ship landing in its mouth. The only minor advantage to any of these sequences is that they're obviously working with a larger budget but in the end this means very little as the imagination simply isn't here. This thing clocks in at just over 7-minutes and I must admit that there were times where I found myself yawning. Towards the end of the film we get a mini-dance sequence that really adds very little to the movie. EXCURSION TO THE MOON isn't a bad film by any stretch of the imagination and I'm sure sci-fi fans will want to watch it but be sure you check out the original version first.