Avaruuden sankarit

Poster tagline: DEEP INTO SPACE THEY STREAK... PLUNGING INTO A LIMITLESS WORLD OF FEAR AND EXCITEMENT... CHALLENGING THE VAST UNKNOWN IN MAN’S MOST PERILOUOS UNDERTAKING!!! I had a hunch that Siodmak was behind this rather tedious affair. It rides on the popularity of Destination Moon, including the serious scientific approach that turns into something Red Dwarf would poke fun at. So for an hour of the 80-minute runtime, we watch the serious preparation of three astronauts before going into space, including a centrifuge simulating gravitational overload (which can also be seen in the Bond film Moonraker with Roger Moore), but the whole thing is terribly dry and uninteresting, with four interior rooms alternating with occasional period shots of the technology of the time, plus a love plot for the ladies. What I appreciate, though, is the depiction of the spacecraft’s launch. They may be edited shots from the launch of V2 missiles, but at least the astronauts don't take off in leather jackets with a bag on their heads (like in the contemporary Rocketship X-M or When Worlds Collide), and there are even folding seats, allowing better fixation during overload. But then even Mr. Grygar's hair would fall out in horror, because they catch meteors by simply flying close, opening the door of the rocket and grabbing the meteor like a tennis ball in the hand. But this naivety is simply a product of the times, nothing that would disturb a seasoned viewer of science fiction today :o) (26.04.2016)