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Released by: Blue Underground
Released on: September 27th, 2016.
Director: George McCowan
Cast: Jack Palance, Barry Morse, Carol Lynley, John Ireland, Nicolas Campbell
Year: 1973
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The Movie:
VERY loosely based on a story by H. G. Wells, The Shape of Things To Come (by the director of 'Frogs' and the classic Canadian television series 'The Littlest Hobo') makes its high definition home video debut courtesy of Blue Underground's new Blu-ray release (they previously brought the movie to home video for the first time with their DVD back in 2002).
For those unfamiliar with this epic, The Shape of Things To Come is the story of the distant future (“The time is the tomorrow after tomorrow†we're told), where mankind has now populated the Moon in giant domed cities after evacuating the Earth at the end of 'The Robot Wars.' There are also some serious radiation issues going on, and the only way that they can be treated is with a special drug called Ridic-2-Q that is only available on a distant planet called Delta Three. Everything seems to be going hunky-dorey until Emperor Omus (played Oscar winner Jack Palance) attacks the moon base of New Washington and takes over Delta Three, thus gaining control of the Universe's supply of Ridic-2-Q.
It's up to a team of renegade scientists led by Dr. Caball (Barry Morse, from "Space: 1999"), his assistant son Jason (Nicholas Campbell), a foxy female scientist named Kim Smedley (Anne-Marie Martin), and a rebuilt robot that has a tendency to quote poetry named Sparks (voiced by Greg Swanson)to hijack a prototype spaceship. Why? So that they can take off to stop Omus and his army of evil robots, and restore Nikki (Carol Lynley of Vigilante) to power on Delta Three to make the world right again and keep the supply of Ridic-2-Q flowing.
Sounds kinda corny, right? Well it is. Unbelievably so. This movie was shot on location in parts of Ontario and Quebec for $3.2 Million Canadian dollars, but it looks like it cost a lot less. Growing up in the area it was filmed in, I can honestly say that it looks like it was filmed in my neighbors' backyard in certain spots. The terrain, which is supposed to at times be the moon, or the scorched Earth, or Delta Three, really just looks like the woodlot beside the old townhouse I lived in as a kid. Needless to say, it doesn't necessarily get better from there. The evil robot army that Palance's character has designed to take over the planet and rule the solar system? They're clearly a bunch of guys running around in cardboard and plastic suits with rubber tubing for arms and a few blinking lights for show. Not that this doesn't give the movie its own low budget charm, mind you, but it does make the film tough to take seriously.
The movie feels like a cross between the '70s Buck Rogers TV series and the old 1978 Toei space film, Message From Space (starring Vic Morrow and Sonny Chiba!). The storyline also borrows from Dune and Space: 1999 in a few spots as well, but somehow manages to be far, far worse than any of these combined on both a storytelling level and a special effects level.
That being said, it's hard not to appreciate the fact that this film actually exists. Someone out there had to have thought that putting Jack Palance in a purple cape and shipping him off to Northern Ontario to act alongside some guys in robot suits was a good idea. Someone decided that having Palance appear as a hologram, spinning around while changing colors overtop of some trees to simulate his character using powerful technology to send a threatening message to our heroes, was also a good idea. And someone thought a small teleporting robot that quotes Shakespearian sonnets for comic relief was yet another good idea. Well, as it stands, none of these are good ideas. Not at all. It's great that someone thought they were, and that they went out and actually turned those ideas into reality, but these were poor decisions. And yet, there's loads of entertainment value to be had here. Palance chews the scenery as the bad guy, Anne-Marie Martin looks super-hot in her form fitting space suit, Barry Morse spends most of his time looking confused and Nicholas Campbell dose at least appear to be trying.
The movie is also fairly well paced, so we get enough poor choreographed action scenes, stupid robots and space battles throughout the movie that the film does a decent job of holding our attention. Let's not try to fool ourselves into thinking this is a masterpiece of science fiction cinema but it is colorful, bizarre and a treat for fans of the inimitable charm that can come from Canadian tax shelter films made in the seventies.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The Shape Of Things arrives on a 50GB Blu-ray disc from Blue Underground in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition presentation framed at 1.66.1 widescreen looking quite nice indeed, if a bit soft. This was a movie that was clearly shot 'soft' but there's quite a bit more detail and texture here than there was on the past DVD edition. Colors look great and skin tones are nice and warm but never too hot or too pink, though the lack of pores and a slightly waxy look makes you wonder if some light filtering or noise reduction was applied here. Black levels are nice and solid and the disc is well authored. As such, there aren't any issues with compression almost nothing in the way of actual print damage, the elements used were quite clean.
English language DTS-HD tracks are provided in the original Mono and a 5.1 Surround Sound remix with optional subtitles available in English, French and Spanish.
There are two new featurettes included on the disc, the first is Jason's Journey, a thirteen minute spot where Nicholas Campbell talks about how he got the role, his thoughts on appearing in an infamously bad movie such as this, what he likes about the picture, working with Jack Palance and Harry Alan Towers and how none other than Koo Stark almost wound up playing a part in the film! The second interview gets composer Paul Hoffert in front of the camera for a seventeen minute featurette called Symphonies In Space. Here he covers how he wound up with the job of scoring the picture, how he got into the music business in the first place and the importance of using a drum machine when working on something as goofy as a feature like The Shape Of Things To Come!
Carried over from the old DVD release are a stills gallery, a French trailer and English TV spot for the film. Menus and chapter selection are also included.
The Final Word:
The Shape Of Things To Come is entirely deserving of its reputation as an epic misfire, but it's a fun watch nevertheless. Worth seeing just for the ridiculous robots and Palance's rotating hologram scene, the film looks really nice on Blu-ray and it sounds quite good too. Add to the fact that Blue Underground has gone out and thrown in a pair of featurettes that are both fun and interesting and this is one that fans of the film should have no problem upgrading on!
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
