A waste of 90 minutes of my life

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Classic sci-fi from producer George Pal and director Irving Pichel (always Sandor to me). It's a landmark film; one of the first serious space exploration films. It was beat to the theaters by a month by the less impressive but still enjoyable Rocketship X-M. This has a better budget and special effects, as well as being in color. The script, co-written by Robert Heinlein, is smart and fresh with good character work and drama with attention to scientific detail (for its time). The cast is full of mostly sober, adult performances. The exception is Dick Wesson's comic relief character. He's the clichéd "wiseguy from Brooklyn" that was in about a hundred WWII movies. This is Wesson's film debut. I promise he's not as annoying as he sounds. Love the sets, matte backdrops, and colorful astronaut suits. Oh and this has Woody Woodpecker in it, which automatically bumps up the cool points. Definitely worth a look for fans of Golden Age science fiction films. Not just for the historical value but for entertainment purposes as well.

DESTINATION MOON is a landmark science fiction film that nowadays would be seen as science fact. It tells of a trip to the moon a good twenty years before the event happened in real life, so listening to all the theories play out and watching as the astronauts head off into space makes for very interesting viewing – in most aspects the technicalities are spot on. Sci-fi writer Robert A. Heinlein was involved in the script and he creates a literate, realistic film that was the APOLLO 13 of its day.Of course, half a century later, it's inevitable that the film feels stagy and dated. The scenes set in space look like nothing more than a couple of actors on a set somewhere with a black wall behind them studded with little light bulbs and wires are often visible. In terms of filmmaking, while all of the special effects are well handled by actor-turned-director Irving Pichel (DRACULA'S DAUGHTER) the human drama is a bit stilted. I found that I didn't connect with any of the guys on an emotional level, I wasn't involved with them in the same way I was involved when I watched the Tom Hanks-starrer. On the plus side, there are none of those 'control room back on Earth' interludes which I always find a bit uninteresting in science fiction films.The cast are all right. The various actors playing officious types all seem very officious. The inclusion of Woody Woodpecker is a nice touch that humanises all of the jargon. George Pal, later the director of such wonderful fare as WAR OF THE WORLDS and THE TIME MACHINE, acts as producer here and I think he's responsible for all the colourful and fun spaceship stuff. There's an engaging quandary at the climax too; I think the drama here was handled very well.

Interestingly, the opening title sequence looks vaguely familiar, let's see, could it be that George Lucas could have 'borrowed' the receding prologue sequence in Star Wars from Destination Moon? Certainly this is no coincidence and a testament that there is nothing new under the sun...or moon in this case. Though dated, as so many 50's Sci-Fi films are, this one, with Heinlein's influence, attempted to be as factual as it could and showed some very sophisticated special effects for the time. In fact, the film won a Oscar for that category. The film's very striving for authenticity is the very thing that makes this film so genuinely a period piece...the lack of security at the lift site, the footage of the 'computer', the wise cracking radio man, the zero gravity sequences and, my fave...the obligatory rescue scene. All have become stereotypical features in countless films to follow...yet this is, in many ways, ground zero for films of this genre. If you are a fan of 1950's Sci-Fi, this is a must.

I wonder if America of 1950 had any greater worries than the possibility that Russia could get to the Moon before them? I bet they did, but that didn't stop Destination Moon from handling the subject with the most earnest of touches. Its serious science fiction, researched fact mixed with sober speculation and served up with a dollop of right wing attitude. I can't say as I think this one has aged terribly well in many aspects other than its effects sequences actually, though I found it broadly watchable enough. For starters I wasn't sold on the political attitude. The anti Commie slant is fair enough and not something I would expect to be given serious treatment, but I thought rather less of the idea of free enterprise bypassing the law and then being applauded when they succeeded, indeed I found it rather too simplistic. The film brings up the notion of public opinion being agitated against the idea of an atomic rocket, which is interesting, but never dwelt upon, there is mention of the possibility of a saboteur when an early rocket explodes, this is also never dwelt upon, most importantly in terms of characters little discussion goes into the possibilities of danger for the land around the site should the mission go wrong, other than that it has been evacuated. Now, I don't generally like to get into politics in cinema but here it stands out, as the writing isn't up to much, the acting is mediocre and the events too sparsely exciting. Everything seems more concerned with asserting grandeur and importance of the mission and then putting some scientific accuracy on screen, rather than drawing interesting characters to invest the audience in events or stirring up excitement. Having said this, the emphasis on accuracy is pretty interesting in itself, especially when contrasted with the lunacies of so many fellow science fiction films of the time. Destination Moon is really the result of smart minds doing their best to come up with an absolutely plausible account of man landing on the Moon and its remarkably prescient stuff, from plans of the later Apollo missions to even the first words spoken on the eventual landing in 1969. Everything comes across accurate and the special effects are excellent (they bagged an Oscar) with fun depictions of weightlessness and low gravity, some ace matte painting work and shuttle take off excitement. Cast-wise no one impresses too much and Dick Wesson irritates in a lamely written everyman role, but things just about hold together until the lightly suspenseful end. Altogether I wasn't a big fan of this one, its respectable and probably a worthy watch for the serious science fiction fan but it isn't all that much fun. A fair 5/10 from me then.