Wonderfully offbeat film!

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

FANTASTIC VOYAGE is a science fiction adventure film that, in the background of some sort of Cold War, examines a medical journey into the human body. This is a well-rounded story, in which, the most attention draw miniaturization techniques and race against time through the human body.The United States and the Soviet Union have both developed technology that can miniaturize matter by shrinking individual atoms, but only for a limited amount of time, depending on how small the item is miniaturized. One scientist has figured out how to improve that process. However, his brain is damaged in an assassination attempt on him. To save his life, agent Charles Grant joins a group of scientists in an experimental mission. Through a revolutionary and as-yet-untested process, the scientists and their special motorized vehicle are miniaturized, then injected into the blood stream of a near-death scientist. They will be faced with the dangers of the human body and saboteur among them.An extremely interesting environment, surreal view of the interior of the human body and believable visual effects are the biggest advantages of this film. Of course, the probability of some scientific facts must be put aside. I would not leave room for some sort of disbelief, because this journey is, nonetheless, quite creative and comfortable.Stephen Boyd as Charles Grant is very good as a lifeguard on a duty, despite his initial surprise and disbelief. Raquel Welch as Cora Peterson is an attractive beauty in a leather suit, who assists the head doctor from time to time. An attenuated affection of Charles towards Cora is quite nice.Edmond O'Brien (General Carter), Donald Pleasence (Dr. Michaels) and Arthur Kennedy (Dr. Peter Duval) were up to the task.

Bought the 50th anniversary Blu-ray about four months ago and never got around to watching it until 2 days ago and it's such a masterpiece of set design and science fiction fantasy.Dr. Grant is chosen to go in with a team of four other scientists to be shrunken down to microscopic size and injected into the body of a fellow scientist in order to save fellow scientist who is now in a coma following an assassination attempt. However, there is growing suspicion among the higher-ups that one or two of the members aboard the Proteus might be trying to finish the assassination.The main reason to give this film a view is due to the grand and incredible set designs, whenever the scientists must leave the Proteus (the small sub in which they pilot) to either refill their air tanks or remove reticulated fibers from the heat intake of the ship, inner body they explore is astounding. The lack of a green screen for the out of the sub excursions was rightly rewarded with two Oscars.The film is also a great exploration into one of my favourite words, Verisimilitude. Something appearing to be so real despite you knowing it's not, you're aware it isn't real but it's done at such an incredible level it's almost plausible.Set design, art direction, colour and masterwork of cinematography in Fantastic Voyage was an incredible sci-fi classic and if you're a fan of 60's cinema or magical science fiction, Fantastic Voyage is definitely for you

I had heard a lot about this movie and even knew how it ended. With all that being said, I was still really glad I saw it and it was amazingly good. There's probably some personal bias here. I love stories about shrinking people. I have also been fascinated by anatomy for awhile now. I kept asking myself whether or not this was scientifically accurate. It makes me think about my old days in High School where we learn about the pulmonary vein and the like. I'm glad that there's a note afterwards that says the people working on the movie actually did consult actual doctors to make sure they got their facts right.From what I do remember, this seems to be accurate. Anyway, this film is notorious for having a rather glaring plot hole, but that could actually be explained. It's clearly stated that all the characters go back to their normal size after an hour. One of the crew's members, Dr. Michaels, is shrunk down and killed in the ship while everyone else leaves the man's body. Now, the movie actually ends right there, so we really don't have any idea what happens next. It could be argued that the mission became a complete failure and the guy was killed when the ship went back to normal size, but we don't see that. Isaac Asimov complained about this and actually wrote a novelization that corrects this. It's said Dr. Michaels' body and the ship leave the body with the other characters.Now, we still don't see any of this happen in the movie, so it's actually difficult to say what really happened. Isaac Asimov's book version actually came out before the release of the movie so his interpretation is probably more accurate. With all this being said, I still love this movie. The strange thing is that the film has been referenced many times in pop culture, but it doesn't have a high rating here, which I find to be a shame. I truly consider this one of the best sci-fi films ever made. Again, it might be just because it uses ideas I really like.I just love the pacing of this film. It turns out this movie actually does take place in real time with the hour passing. I just love the sets in this film. I am so impressed at how this really does hold up after all these decades! None of it looks fake. I loved it from the very beginning with how creative the credits were! It just knows how to set itself up. I like movies that are big and epic, but I think the length was just perfect here. Well 100 minutes is a really even number. It was interesting to have scenes that were so quiet.It's also great to see how Dr. Michaels is slowly built up as the antagonist. Again, I already knew this but it was still brilliantly done. I just love the atmosphere this film produces. It's such a pretty looking film. It just sets up its story and deals with it so well. It's a straight forward story that doesn't try to be too elaborate. Yeah, this film is far from obscure, but I really wish more people would watch and love it! ****

Fantastic Voyage is a wonderful, old-fashioned sci-fi adventure ripe with unique ideas. I like the idea about exploring the inside of a human body, something that hasn't been done much even at a time where original ideas are practically non-existent. The film is not all perfect, as the visual effects are very outdated, though it's still cool to look at. I also had an issue with some of the characterization, mainly with Raquel Welch's character. I had no idea what the point of her role was other than being eye candy. But for the most part, I had a fun time watching the movie and it was even a learning experience for me, learning about the human body. I also loved the score for the film. It wasn't so much a score as it was a sound effects party. In most cases, I would have been annoyed, but I felt such a score would belong in a film like this.Richard Fleischer's film is about this scientist who is mortally wounded by gunfire, and he holds the secret to miniaturization that could be catastrophic if the information fell in the wrong hands. The CIA decides to do emergency brain surgery, but in order to do so, they most get miniaturized themselves and take a trip into the human body. Grant was hired to act as security, because the CIA fear one of their own may be with the enemy.The film was reasonably well-acted. Stephen Boyd, more known as Judah Ben Hur's enemy in 1959's Ben-Hur does a pretty good job. This is Raquel Welch's film debut, but I'm not sure the point of her character was. There was no romantic subplot or she hardly ever speaks. This was probably my biggest bugaboo. Donald Pleasance, mostly known for starring in horror films, does a wonderful job as the lead doctor.Overall, Fantastic Voyage is a fun sci-fi movie that holds up pretty well today, story-wise. The visuals were good for its time, but not so much today. I loved the idea of exploring the human body, and I think this film does that justice. When the body's immune system starts attacking everyone was a very interesting scene to watch. I was expecting a cheesy sci-fi movie to be honest, but I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe I shouldn't be with how the cast was. While nowhere near perfection, it was a fun movie to watch.My Grade: B+