Absolutely Fantastic

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

I have recently gotten into the habit of watching these old science fiction movies from the fifties and sixties, and I have to say that, even though they are a bit ridiculous and campy, some of them are actually very well put together, such as this one.Cosmic Man is a film about a UFO landing in a California desert while government officials decide what to do with it. During their debate, a transparent figure (John Carradine) emerges secretly from the UFO and begins to aid a doctor (Bruce Bennett) in his research, unbeknownst to the doctor. While it seems as if this transparent figure is harmless and wishes only to seek information from these people, a general (Herbert Lytton) thinks otherwise.Through a very lengthy monologue, the transparent man (now known as the "Cosmic Man") explains his actions and his wishes to the doctor and the general. While the Cosmic Man commends the doctor for his progressive outlook towards him and other civilizations, he harshly criticizes the general for his barbaric thoughts and plans. This does not sit well with the general and he threatens to harm the Cosmic Man if he does not comply with the general's demands.Rejecting the general's demands, the Cosmic Man attempts to escape. In a climactic scene pitting the Cosmic Man against the general and other government officials, the Cosmic Man is shot before he can reach the UFO. As the general goes in to finish the job, the doctor talks him out of it, predicting that the general in doing so would bring worse possible outcomes in the future.The Cosmic Man disappears along with the UFO, without any indication as to whether or not he survived the gunshot from the general. Though the outlook for the Cosmic Man does not seem good, the doctor says that he will indeed be back.While the film was a little bit campy, I really did enjoy it. It was very well put-together and acted out, for a B-grade 1950's science fiction film. While there is not much in the way of science fiction (other than the UFO and the Cosmic Man himself), the film certainly makes up for in philosophy and speculation.The doctor's philosophy towards the Cosmic Man and the other possible universal civilizations that could be eventually discovered are very progressive in the sense that the doctor wants to befriend the Cosmic Man and make peace with him so as to show other civilizations that he wishes to "collaborate" with them in inter-spatial and intergalactic affairs. It also demonstrates really well in speculation as to why UFO's are being seen at such an alarming rate and what business they might have in being on Earth. During this time, UFO's had been seen quite often which could be a possible reason why this film was made.Overall, I found the film to be very enjoyable and quite thought-provoking as well. While it is very campy in some aspects, it is a very intricately performed and produced film that I will probably watch multiple times in my life. I give this film a seven out of ten.

Although the idea for the story is completely ripped off from The Day The Earth Stood Still and the production values are practically opaque in this film, The Cosmic Man has a nice story to tell with a good cast of sincere competent players. Seeing John Carradine heading the cast I know the man was not to discriminate in those science fiction films he starred in I was expecting the worst. I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was.Instead of Washington, DC for a landing, a small spherical spaceship travels and lands in a mountainous of the USA. It is plain that a man not like any we know has emerged and is in the area. Played by John Carradine The Cosmic Man is human like in general appearance, but he's not threatened by any of our more conventional like weapons. He takes refuge in a resort lodge owned by Angela Greene and he bonds with her son Scotty Morrow who is crippled and terminal.The debate between scientist Bruce Bennett and military man Paul Langton as to what to do with this alien invader takes up a lot of the film. If you remember in The Thing the same debate takes place between Air Force Colonel Kenneth Tobey and scientist Robert Cornthwaite. Here we have a different winner.I can't go further about the plot, but The Cosmic Man is a sincere plea for peace not just on earth. In the end Carradine The Cosmic Man leaves a legacy of love that there is no mistake about.This is not The Day The Earth Stood Still, but this particular science fiction film from The Fifties while not great is unjustly neglected.

"The Cosmic Man" is a charming attempt to make a $5.00 version of "The Day the Earth Stood Still". It's an extremely low-budgeted Sci-Fi movie from the late fifties, so this generally means there are stern scientists talking a lot of pseudo-philosophical gibberish and asking themselves way too many rhetorical questions, villainous looking military men fantasizing about weapons of mass destruction and mysterious alien forces with minds that are immeasurably superior to ours. When a spherical UFO – a gigantic golf ball actually – is discovered in a small Californian canyon community, the army wants to nuke it and a local scientist wants to study it. Meanwhile, the alien passenger sneaks out of his interstellar golf ball and begins exploring the earthly habits, rites and inhabitants. This is where our cute and cheap little B-movie rips off "The Day the Earth Stood Still", in fact, as the alien witnesses the imbecility and self-destructive nature of the human race. How come aliens get such a kick out of observing how stupid we are? Like in a few hundred of the films he starred in, John Carradine receives top-billing even though he appears all together perhaps for a whole five minutes. "The Cosmic Man" is often rather dull and doesn't contain any real action, but it certainly has good intentions and an earnest supportive cast.

For once Maltin has reviewed something correctly: The Cosmic Man is a sad Day the Earth Stood Still rip-off. We have the alien representative who disguises himself as a human and befriends an intelligent, open minded scientist and a single mother and her child, we have the closed minded military men who want to capture and question the alien to gain his knowledge, and we have the "fantastic" special effects. Only the acting, fx, and dialogue don't quite measure up to The Day the Earth Stood Still. A key example of this is the kid in this: apparently being a child wasn't enough, but instead they had to make him a cripple to heighten the messianic qualities of the alien. I say watch "The Day the Earth Stood Still" instead, and all you'll miss is a standard Carradine performance.