Please don't spend money on this.

Am I Missing Something?

it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Captain Frank Chapman (Dean Fredericks) is on a mission to look for two vanished spaceships. He encounters a mysterious planet named Rheton, which can freely travel through space. (As the MST3K gang noted, it also looks like a piece of extra crispy KFC.) Chapman's ship is drawn to the planet, whose people are about six inches tall. As soon he breathes the air, Chapman shrinks down to the Rhetons' height. (Atmosphere controls your size. Don't question it!) While on Rheton, he helps defeat their enemies, the Solarites (who resemble a dollar- store version of the "Star Wars" Tusken Raiders).THE PHANTOM PLANET strikes me as made by people who weren't just looking to turn a quick profit. I'm thinking the filmmakers wanted to tell a story that was not mere formula. Alas, the end result fell short of that laudable goal. While the premise is intriguing, it was severely underused; the characters don't even qualify as one-dimensional; to call the acting "wooden" is an insult to trees; the visual effects are as half-baked as any I've seen in this type of film; the costumes are uninspired to the point of seeming like an afterthought; the Solarite costume (worn by a young Richard Kiel) is just pathetic; and the errors in physics are too numerous to count.Item: When Chapman first appears on screen, he looks at his wrist as if checking the time; but he's not wearing a watch.Item: When the astronauts exit their spaceship to make a repair, they are untethered and walking freely on the ship's wing—a neat trick in zero gravity!Item: As Chapman's ship is pulled toward the asteroid, he is sitting in the left-hand seat; but once the ship has landed, he's in the right-hand seat.Item: The Rhetons are able to translate all languages with voice- tone waves. (Sure they are!)Item: A mute woman suddenly becomes vocal when she gets the crap scared out of her. Speech therapists, take note.

THE PHANTOM PLANET is another low budget, endearingly cheap US science fiction movie of the early 1960s. This one could easily have been made a good decade previously because it feels very dated for its era. The story is about a ship of astronauts who find themselves on a miniature world in which the inhabitants are menaced by ugly alien creatures and the like. It's a film full of cliffhanger action, dated but effective special effects, and a cool-looking man-in-a-suit alien played by a youthful Richard Kiel. Sometimes, it's the dated films which are the most fun, and so it proves with this simple but effective slice of US sci-fi cheese.

I must admit that I did not watched an old Sci-Fi movie since long time, so, maybe I'm not what they call an expert in classical movies. I am the child of my times, so I'm used with the new wave of Sci-Fi movies, full of action and special effects.Still I enjoyed this classic film and I think is worth viewing. You can find a bit of everything in this movie.The dream of nuclear power as fuel for rockets. Some kind of Gulliver among the people of Liliput. The highly advanced civilization who gives up to the comfort of technology (and all the dangers that comes with it) to live a simple "primitive" life. A touch of Ancient Greek fashion style in the dress models of the main feminine characters. An echo of Feminism: female juries wearing short dresses. And at the end, the somehow blurred line between what is real and what is not.The "special effects" and the general style reminds me of Star Trek TOS. And just like in Star Trek, the monster aliens look unconvincing. But we should admit that the creators of this movie did their best for that time. I could point out some goofs, but I think we should show some understanding and just enjoy this classic!

I'm giving this four out of ten because it has that certain "so bad it's entertaining" quality to it.I remember seeing this on our local UHF station back in the 70s. Strangely enough, it aired just a couple of weeks before "Star Wars" premiered. I was struck at the time that the sound effects for screaming Solarites and attacking Tie fighters were uncannily similar, plus the shots featuring Solarites piloting their fighters presaged the view of Darth Vader in his fighter. It was a bit jarring to note any similarity at all between a fifteen-year-old B-movie and George Lucas' epic.If you have an hour and a half to set aside to enjoy a bad movie being a bad movie, this one will fit the bill. In the pre-opening-credits segment, a doomed scout ship pilot logs that he is 21,000 miles from his base on the moon, as if that is some great distance. One can overlook cheesy special effects and cheap monster suits much more readily than glaring faults in scripting. One means you didn't have money to burn, but the other means that you just didn't care. Watch for actors displaying unnaturally slow reaction times in fight scenes and the like, which screams "not willing to shoot another take", so an actor will just space things out until the other actor gets into position. I have not seen the MST3K send-up of this movie, but other people say they do a nice job of puncturing the pretension.