20 Million Miles to Earth (1957)

Plot Outline: A spaceship returns to Earth after a mission to Venus but the crew have brought a creature back with them which proceeds to grow to enormous size. It only asserts itself when threatened, which naturally it is when humans try to stop it from destroying Rome.

The Review: It's one of those typical sci-fi B-movies from the 50s obsessed with aliens and giant monsters but Ray Harryhausen's special effects are once again there to be marvelled at. He manages to make the Ymir (the monster) more life-like and believable than all of the actors involved! It has something about it, which makes you root for the creature, instead of the 'evil' humans trying to kill it. You could compare it with Frankenstein in the way that the creature is made out to be innocent. But part of the reason for sympathising with the creature is because the human cast is so dull. Only when the creature is on screen is the film any good. The fight with the elephant in the streets of Rome is highly impressive as is the finale inside the Colosseum. But all of this happens far too late in the film. Almost nothing happens early on and the monster is only fleetingly glimpsed in it's early stages. This is the 50s so be prepared for some really cheesy dialogue (no doubt you'll have heard practically the same lines in the other b-movies around at the time) and clichéd characters, tepid love plots, army generals who run out of ideas to defeat the monster, plenty of soldiers firing at the first thing they see, etc. It's run-of-the-mill barring the FX.

Final Verdict: This a decent film for fans of this genre but nothing more. Harryhausen's special effects deserve better and thankfully he did with his next film - the eternally superb The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.

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