The 1979 movie The Shape of Things to Come has almost nothing to do with the H.G. Wells tome which inspired the title. Instead what we have here is one of just about a zillion Star Wars knock-offs which went into production to drain off what it could of the glory of its inspiration. What we actually have is a pretty dreary affair which plods along with sufficient if not compelling special effects (for the time) and a story which really doesn't make all that much sense.
We follow two young people who represent Earth (or the peoples of Earth which is now inhospitable) in a colony on the Moon which comes under attack by a tyrant from another colony. They dither and dodge around long enough to soak up the requisite time to make this move long enough for feature distribution and then end the threat pretty easily actually.
That threat is mad leader played by the great Jack Palance and he's the only reason to give this tired outing a try. But sadly he's not on screen nearly enough to warrant his highlight in the credits. I got it on his name pretty much and regretted it mostly, though as a document of what films were like at the time it's not useless.
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I wonder if Jack Palance ever looked at a script and just said "No, thank you." I bet he would have appeared in a tampon commercial if they offered him enough money.
ReplyDeleteNo disrespect, the man was a great actor... but I wish he'd been a little more discriminating about which movies he appeared in.
I don't really fault actors for taking roles, but only for bad or inappropriate acting. That's their job, to act, and if it's done well they are fine by me. Palance is okay in this but not on screen nearly enough.
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