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Saturday, 20 October 2007

Rocketship


Your Saturday sci-fi feature: Rocketship; the 1950's full-length edit of the original 1936 Flash Gordon serial.

Flash Gordon is one of those characters who is almost impossible to transfer to the screen, but at least in 1936 they took a serious stab at capturing the spirit of the comic strip. Believe it or not, it, at the time it was the most expensive serial ever made and it actually has an integrity that stands the test of time.


Want proof? Test the 1936 version with the counter example. Play it while the Scifi Channel's current "reimagined" version is on and watch the latter shrivel up and blow away.



Not that that is definitive. The same result happens when the Scifi version is compared to exhibit B,

Exhibit C,

And even Exhibit D does a better job,



Or even (God help us!) this.

And this one is a cut above and it's so bad that the poster wouldn't even include an embed code!
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1 comment:

  1. jayessellFriday, 19 October 2007 at 20:47:00 GMT-7

    Oh.
    So that's what 'Flesh Gordon' was based on.

    Dr. Jarkov: (sniff) "Good! There's oxygen here!"

    Nice stop motion monster and retro-styled robots.

    BTW:
    Your Honor? Are any of those exhibits the "Flash Gordon... Ah-Ahhhhhh!" version?

    Also:
    I think there was a mid-1970s animated FG also. Primitive CGI or rotoscoping used in some rocket scenes.

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