I can't decide whether the makers of The Phantom Planet were honestly trying to do something great with the film despite their budgetary limitations or were simply attempting to add false gravitas to a thoroughly silly sci-fi B-film in the hopes that it would be mistaken for something "artsy." On the one hand, the film begins on a very sombre note with the death of one of the pilots of a United States Air Force space mission. After spouting out philosophical gobbledegook that makes the ending monologue from Roger Corman's It Conquered the World (1956) seem quaint and subtle, he drifts into space reciting the Lord's Prayer. These scenes are completely tonally dissonant from the rest of the film which follows the other pilot trying to survive after he is captured and shrunk to only a few inches high by the tiny residents of an asteroid. From there, he helps these creatures fight off an invasion of monsters all while wooing the affections of a mute local. The film is rather jarring in its abrupt transition from serious drama to campy sci-fi shlock. And yet, again, I still get the feeling that the director, William Marshall, was taking this project completely seriously and was trying to make...I dunno...some kind of statement. But that's just me, I suppose.
4/10
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