I remember watching this film on television in the 70s and loving it. Whilst I'm not quite so impressed by it now, it is still quite a clever sci-fi yarn about an alien species, themselves under dire threat of extinction, who come to earth to assemble a team of scientists to help save their planet from an enemy bent on destroying it. Jeff Morrow has the slightly conical head as "Exeter" - their leader who recruits Rex Reason ("Meacham") and Faith Domergue ("Adams"). It is one of the first of these 1950s films that I recall seeing in colour, and that does render the SFX a little bit dated - perhaps a touch too much latex. Good nonetheless.

Saw this a long time ago. I'm sure it was back in the early '70s on a TV station that ran Thursday afternoon Sci-Fi movies. I do recall thinking the Metaluna monster with the claw hands and brain-on-the-outside head was really cool (it still is). That mutant seemed really threatening at the time and I was surprised after watching it now how briefly it appears. As a kid, the effects were neat. Seeing it now they are obviously dated, but outside of 1953's "War of the Worlds", they have to be as good as anything else released in the middle of the '50s.

The Metalunans swipe a couple of our scientists, looking for help gathering uranium or plutonium from Earth to power their planet's defense shield. It's needed to fend off the attacks of the enemy Zahgons. Actually, a nice-guy Metalunan named Exeter does the recruiting of the scientists. He flies them back to Metaluna, but when they arrive they find the planet under heavy attack by the Zahgons. Exeter and the scientists run across some matte paintings to reach Metaluna's leader, who basically tells the scientists that humans suck and tells Exeter he's an idiot.

Exeter leads the scientist across the same matte paintings back to the spaceship as Metaluna comes under even heavier attack. I really like the look and sound of the "bombs" that the Zahgon's were dropping. I do vividly remember thinking them to be quite ominous as a youngster. They run into a Metaluna mutant for about 30 seconds and bonk it over its exposed brain with a pipe or something. They leave it for dead and take off, only to have the mutant crawl into the ship as they launch, a la the queen Xenomorph in "Aliens". It attacks them later, but dies from the internal pressure of the ship or some such nonsense.

I'll stop there. I don't want to spoil the ending, which is pretty much what you think it will be. There's a lot of grand, high-minded statements made in the last moments. The 1950's seemed to be a time when we thought pretty highly of our technology, how we might use it to destroy ourselves. Compare that to today's technology and how we use it to tell everyone what we had for breakfast or post selfies. Please, help us, Exeter.

Captures the fear of the atomic age perfectly.

Carl Meacham is an atomic scientist, who after passing a cunning test, gets invited to work at a top secret lab out in Georgia by the rather odd looking Exeter. The project is apparently in the cause of finding world peace, and once arriving at his destination, Carl finds other notable scientists are also there, including the radiant Ruth Adams. As things progress things don't quite add up, and this leads to a realisation that the future of Earth is very much in the balance.

This Island Earth not only divides the casual film viewer, it's also proved divisive amongst the most hardened of sci-fi genre supporters. Some say the story is barely worth a second glance, whilst others point to a distinct lack of scientific nous as a reason to do the film down. To me I find it to be very much on the money for the era it was made. This film comes nearly ten years after America ended World War II with an atomic attack on Japan, nuclear reactors had been commissioned and were no longer seen solely as a weapon of mass destruction, the nuclear age was prominent and very much a reality.

Yes the film is far fetched fantasy, and it tries too hard to encompass a myriad of plot strands, something which to the younger viewers is likely to fly right over their heads. But the value comes very much in the production as a whole. Marvel at the sets, the model work and the gadgets that feature heavily in this delicious slice of berserker sci-fi. Take in the incredible work of cinematographer Clifford Stine as we find ourselves on a desolate planet. It's a beacon of the genre because it identified the benefits of Technicolor to sci-fi and used it vividly to enhance its story (even if subsequent home entertainment releases have yet to restore it to a print fully worthy of the colour venture). The lovely Faith Domergue and square jawed Rex Reason play our intrepid scientists with verve and vigour, whilst Jeff Morrow is uneasily quirky as the mysterious Exeter. This Island Earth is a technically wonderful film, a shining light from a time when cinema was a craft from all quarters of the medium, it's also intelligent and knowingly astute of its own time frame.

Don't believe the nay sayers, this is a smart, poetic fantasy that also contains genuine moments of beauty. 7/10