How sad is this?

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

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Saturn 3 is a sci fi thriller about a robot that goes insane. The film succeeds on its cinematography, the robot, some of its violent content and story. I was, however, disappointed with films approach of being isolated with limited amount of characters. I would of preferred a higher body count. But oh well. I guess I'll wack it to Aliens. At least more people die in that movie. To conclude: Saturn 3 is nothing special but it's a fun space age thriller.

I was one of the few heterosexual teenagers of my generation who was never in love with Farrah Fawcett. Yes, I did watch "Charlie's Angels", but only for the lovely Jaclyn Smith. Farrah always struck me as the ultimate manufactured plastic bimbo- big hair, big teeth, big boobs, small talent. That supposedly iconic poster of her wearing a red swimsuit and a cheesy grin may have sold God-knows-how-many copies, but it never came anywhere near my bedroom wall.By the end of seventies, however, Farrah had become a leading sex symbol and a well-known figure on television. There was just one world left for her to conquer, Hollywood, although the transition from big-name television actress to Hollywood goddess is not always an easy one. (It eluded, for example, most of Farrah's fellow-Angels as well as Pamela Anderson, who was to the nineties what Farrah was to the seventies). "Saturn 3" can be seen as Farrah's bid for big-screen stardom. It was, admittedly, made in Britain rather than in Hollywood, but had a legendary American director in Stanley Donen and a legendary American leading man in Kirk Douglas.The immense success of the original "Star Wars" in 1977 had led to a vogue for science fiction, previously a little-regarded film genre associated with cheap fifties B-movie shockers. "Saturn 3" was one of a number of British attempts to cash in on this vogue. ("Flash Gordon", also from 1980, was another). The original idea for the film came from John Barry, better known as a composer, who was its original director before he was replaced by Donen at Douglas's insistence. (Like his friend Burt Lancaster, Douglas had a reputation for pulling rank to ensure he got the directors he wanted).The film is set in an agricultural research station on the third moon of Saturn. For the purposes of the film we are asked to accept that, at the future date when it is set, useful agricultural research can indeed be done on an airless, lifeless lump of rock many millions of miles from Earth, although we are never given details of the science involved. We are also asked to accept that although the work done at this station is of immense value it can be run by a team of only two people, an ageing scientist named Adam and his younger colleague and lover, Alex. (Yeah, I know. "Eve" would have sounded a bit too obvious). Adam and Eve- sorry, Alex- live happily together in Eden- sorry, Saturn Three- until their idyll is interrupted by the arrival of a serpent. This particular serpent comes in the form of Captain Benson, a homicidally psychopathic astronaut sent by the authorities to check up on Saturn Three.Let me clarify that a bit. The authorities have not knowingly sent a homicidal psychopath to Saturn Three. Benson was originally slated for the mission but was not allowed to fly when he failed a psychological assessment test. The enraged Benson reacted by murdering his replacement and then taking his place on board the spaceship, without anyone apparently noticing. Benson brings with him a robot named Hector who, having been programmed from Benson's brain patterns, has acquired his psychological instability. From this point on the film becomes an extra-terrestrial chase thriller, with first Benson and then Hector pursuing Adam and Alex with a view to killing the former and raping the latter.Barry originally conceived the film on a much grander scale, but after the production company ITC Entertainment made a massive loss with "Raise the Titanic!", one of the biggest financial flops in the history of the British cinema, the budget for "Saturn 3" has to be pruned drastically. Barry had wanted to entice the young male audience by putting Farrah in revealing costumes throughout, but the more puritanical Donen vetoed this, and although there is the occasional glimpse of bare flesh (both from Farrah and from Douglas) her normal clothing is fairly modest. As a result, the young male audience stayed away in droves. Mind you, so did most of the population, meaning that "Saturn 3" was nearly as big a flop as "Raise the Titanic!" Its failure, however, cannot be wholly blamed upon Farrah's clothing. The screenplay was written by the prominent novelist Martin Amis, but one would hardly have guessed this from the finished film. The acting (apart from Sally the dog) is poor. This is by some distance the worst performance I have seen from Douglas. I assume that the sexagenarian actor was only induced to appear by the prospect of a love scene with an actress thirty years his junior, something which at 63 presumably did not come his way every day. Fawcett is even more wooden here than she was in "Charlie's Angels". Even the thought that she and her lover are in mortal peril from a murderous lunatic and a paranoid android cannot elicit much feeling from her. So emotionless is she that I was expecting a plot twist (which never actually came) whereby Alex is revealed to be a robot herself. As for poor Harvey Keitel, he was not even trusted to speak his own lines. (Apparently Donen objected to his New York accent and had his lines dubbed over by a British actor). The one thing you can say in the film's favour is that, despite the low budget, the special effects are reasonably good.In the fifties Donen was regarded as a Hollywood whizz-kid, a specialist in musicals and the man responsible for films as good as "Singin' in the Rain". By 1980, however, the screen musical was largely dead and Donen was starting to look like yesterday's man. Although he is still alive, "Saturn 3" was to be his penultimate feature film. His last was to be "Blame It on Rio", a film every bit as dire as this one and a sad end to a once distinguished career. 3/10

From its first shot of the underside of a space cruiser flying into the frame towards a planet, you feel the influences of "Alien," "Star Wars," and every other genre film of its type put out in the 1970s. The only difference is in the lower budget the studio had to spend on models, props, and other special effects.Scientist Adam (Kirk Douglas) and his colleague/lover Alex are stationed on an experimental hydroponics research station on one of the moons of Saturn. Their peaceful existence is interrupted by the arrival of Captain Benson (Harvey Keitel). He's been sent to assemble a robot named Hector who will likely replace Adam in the hopes of making the station run more efficiently. It slowly becomes obvious the robot has a mind of its own. It will stop at nothing to take over the station and liberate itself from the control of any humans."Saturn 3" is rated R for violence, language, adult situations, drug use, and brief nudity. The brief nudity is basically a flash of Farah Fawcett's breasts and the butt of Kirk Douglas. Both are unnecessary and add nothing to the story. Harvey Keitel and Hector both lust over the scantily-clad Fawcett. Keitel tells her that on Earth, everyone is promiscuous in the future. They've come to all just enjoy each other sexually with no inhibitions.To common everyday movie audiences, "Saturn 3" will come across as just another misstep for any of the actors and filmmakers involved. Cult classic enthusiasts will understand it for what it is. It's an overlooked and slightly damaged gemstone worthy of its place next to "Meteor," "Outland," "Lifeforce" and other forgotten treasures of the era.

In the future, Earth is overcrowded and the population relies on distant bases to be fed. In the Saturn 3 station, Major Adam (Kirk Douglas) and the scientist Alex (Farrah Fawcett), who is also his lover and has never been on Earth, have been researching hydroponics for three years in the base alone with their dog Sally. Meanwhile, the psychotic Captain Benson (Harvey Keitel) fails the mental test required to travel to Saturn 3 and kills his replacement, Captain James, taking his place in the mission of assembling and programming the Demi-God series robot Hector to replace one of the scientists in Saturn 3. On the arrival, the mentally disturbed Captain Benson becomes sexually obsessed for Alex. Then he uses an interface to link his brain to program Hector, but incapable to control his emotions, he transfers his homicidal tendency and insanity to Hector. Now Major Adam and Alex are trapped in the station with a dangerous psychopath robot."Saturn 3" is an underrated sci-fi cult from the 80's with a dark story that has not aged. The plot is very simple but creepy and the cast is very well selected: Kirk Douglas very mature but still handsome, convincing that Major Adam is capable to seduce Alex. The underrated actress Farrah Fawcett in the top of her beauty and showing parts of her body, seducing not only the psychopath Captain Benson but ( I believe) most of the male viewers. And Harvey Keitel is perfect as a mentally unstable man with sex drive on Alex. The non-commercial conclusion is also excellent and perfect for the story. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Missão Saturno 3" ("Mission Saturn 3")