BY RICH DREES
“I
have many impressive things to show you in my citadel!â€
So
intones the looming hologram of maniacal would-be galactic conqueror Omus (Jack
Palance) to heroic Jason Caball (Nicholas Campbell) and Kim (Ann-Marie Martin)
after they have landed on the planet Delta Three. Apparently, a screening of
the film that this scene is unfolding in, 1978's “The Shape Of Things To Come,â€
is not on the agenda. Coming in the midst of the first big “Star Warsâ€-knockoff
boom, this Canadian low-budget effort may have its fans, but “impressive†is
probably not a word to describe the film. Even viewing it for the cheese
factor, it is still a rather moldy and unappetizing cinematic confection.
In
the far future, humanity has colonized the moon to escape a war-ravaged Earth.
Their peaceful existence comes into jeopardy when Delta Three, their only
source of an anti-radiation medicine, is taken over by the tyrannical Omus and
his army of robots. Omus is looking to extend the reach of his rule to the moon
and is planning on attacking the lunar domed cities with a fleet of robot run
spacecraft. In an attempt to thwart the invasion before it starts, Dr. John
Caball (Barry Morse), his son Jason (Campbell), his friend Kim (Martin),and
teleporting robot Sparks head to Delta Three. Once there, they hook up with a
group of rebels led by Delta Three's deposed governor who are planning an
assault against Omus's citadel in an attempt to win back their world.
As
anyone with a passing familiarity of the film's alleged source material, any
similarity between “The Shape of Things To Come†and H.G. Wells' novel (or the
1936 film directed by William Cameron Menzies for that matter) is strictly
coincidental. What might not be so coincidental are the rebels led by a strong
woman character, sassy robots, imperiled planets and an aspiration to high
adventure that firmly put this movie as firmly trying to hitch a ride on the
then-current “Star Wars†wave.
But
that is not to say that the screenplay is not without its own ambitions. It
wants to give us the spectacle of a desperate group of rebels fighting off a
rampaging army of killer robots or the exotic but deadly perils of space
travels. Unfortunately, its ambitions far outweigh the talent or resources
available to realize them. Director George McCowan has neither the eye or the
budget to bring any life to the material on the screen. It isn't as if his crew
didn't try. The design and build of the movie's spacecraft models is
particularly nice. Unfortunately, it appears as if the budget ran out when it
came time to paint and light them. The rest of the film's visual aesthetic does
not fare much better. The lighting is flat and the best that can be said about
the cinematography is that the camera is pointed at the actors. At times when the film sobers enough to
realize it doesn't have the budget to visualize what it wants to it commits the
same cardinal sin that Robert Wise's “Star Trek: The Next Generation†would
commit a few months later and resorts to showing its cast stare at a screen and
commenting on something that is never actually shown to the audience. Those in
search of any kind of visual flair will need to look elsewhere.
For
his part, Nicholas Campbell certainly seems to understand exactly what movie he
has been a part of and is candid about his experiences in one of the two
interviews included as special features on Blue Underground's recent Blu-ray
release of the film. It is a shame that an interview with Campbell's co-star
Ann-Marie Martin couldn't have been secured, as it would have been interesting
to see her feelings on the film as someone who narrowly lost out landing the
part of Princess Leia in “Star Wars†just a few years earlier. The other
interview that is included on the disc is with composer Paul Hoffert who seems
to have had more enjoyable experience, given the freedom he had to experiment a
bit with combining traditional orchestrations with newer electronic
instrumentation. A French trailer (possibly for the Quebec market?), a
television commercial and poster, picture and press book galleries round out
the disc's extras.
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