Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.

Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Leofwine_draca DESTINATION MOON is a landmark science fiction film that nowadays would be seen as science fact. It tells of a trip to the moon a good twenty years before the event happened in real life, so listening to all the theories play out and watching as the astronauts head off into space makes for very interesting viewing – in most aspects the technicalities are spot on. Sci-fi writer Robert A. Heinlein was involved in the script and he creates a literate, realistic film that was the APOLLO 13 of its day.Of course, half a century later, it's inevitable that the film feels stagy and dated. The scenes set in space look like nothing more than a couple of actors on a set somewhere with a black wall behind them studded with little light bulbs and wires are often visible. In terms of filmmaking, while all of the special effects are well handled by actor-turned-director Irving Pichel (DRACULA'S DAUGHTER) the human drama is a bit stilted. I found that I didn't connect with any of the guys on an emotional level, I wasn't involved with them in the same way I was involved when I watched the Tom Hanks-starrer. On the plus side, there are none of those 'control room back on Earth' interludes which I always find a bit uninteresting in science fiction films.The cast are all right. The various actors playing officious types all seem very officious. The inclusion of Woody Woodpecker is a nice touch that humanises all of the jargon. George Pal, later the director of such wonderful fare as WAR OF THE WORLDS and THE TIME MACHINE, acts as producer here and I think he's responsible for all the colourful and fun spaceship stuff. There's an engaging quandary at the climax too; I think the drama here was handled very well.

Claudio Carvalho The rocket engineer Dr. Charles Cargraves (Warner Anderson) blows-up a rocket during the tests and loses the government funding. Together with his friends General Thayer (Tom Powers) and Jim Barnes (John Archer), they raise funds from American industrialists to build a rocket using atomic engine in the desert to reach the moon. However the public opinion is against the project afraid of radiation leakage in the spot and they decide to anticipate the launch of the spaceship without tests. The radar and radio operator Joe Sweeney (Dick Wesson) is invited and teams-up with them and the rocket is called Luna. During the descent on the moon, they use too much fuel to safely land. After the exploration of the lunar soil, Charles realizes that they need to reduce the weight of the rocket to launch back to Earth based on the remaining fuel. They remove all the essential equipment but Charles concludes that someone must be left behind. Will they return to Earth?"Destination Moon" is a surprising good sci-fi from 1950. The story uses technological concepts to explain the situations and is very well developed. The use of the Woody Woodpecker is very funny and the special effects are impressive for a 1950 film. The conclusion "This Is the End of the Beginning" is visionary. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): Not available on Blu-Ray or DVD.

dougdoepke In 1950, Destination Moon was in a battle with Rocketship X-M for the earliest release date. There had been little like them before. You'd probably have to go back to the 30's and Flash Gordon for prior space travel films and a time when rocketships were considered kids' fare because space travel seemed such a far off reality.Moon missed out by a couple months in the release battle, but together with the more fictional Rocketship, helped usher in a whole decade of mainly teenage sci-fi. Actually, Moon is in a different sub-category since it tried to be more reality based, though its concessions to commercial values are all too obvious.Nonetheless, Moon managed to convey basic principles of space travel, including a look at a Technicolor lunar landscape, both within a popular entertainment context. For this 11-year old, the 90-minutes proved genuinely fascinating; at the same time, it introduced me to a whole new arena of movie imagination, and I expect it did the same for thousands of others, both young and old.In that sense, the movie represents a milestone in post-war film fare, and just as importantly, served as a popular introduction to the so-called space race of the 1960's. Note too, the allusions to Cold War competition for space supremacy and its military value, another timely aspect then on the national horizon.Too bad the film has become so obscure. Sure, the effects have dated in the meantime, while much of the byplay with Sweeney (Wesson) now seems a silly concession to commercialism. Nonetheless, the movie remains a milestone in the evolution of modern science-fiction, and for many of us oldsters, a striking introduction to the space age.

Bloodwank I wonder if America of 1950 had any greater worries than the possibility that Russia could get to the Moon before them? I bet they did, but that didn't stop Destination Moon from handling the subject with the most earnest of touches. Its serious science fiction, researched fact mixed with sober speculation and served up with a dollop of right wing attitude. I can't say as I think this one has aged terribly well in many aspects other than its effects sequences actually, though I found it broadly watchable enough. For starters I wasn't sold on the political attitude. The anti Commie slant is fair enough and not something I would expect to be given serious treatment, but I thought rather less of the idea of free enterprise bypassing the law and then being applauded when they succeeded, indeed I found it rather too simplistic. The film brings up the notion of public opinion being agitated against the idea of an atomic rocket, which is interesting, but never dwelt upon, there is mention of the possibility of a saboteur when an early rocket explodes, this is also never dwelt upon, most importantly in terms of characters little discussion goes into the possibilities of danger for the land around the site should the mission go wrong, other than that it has been evacuated. Now, I don't generally like to get into politics in cinema but here it stands out, as the writing isn't up to much, the acting is mediocre and the events too sparsely exciting. Everything seems more concerned with asserting grandeur and importance of the mission and then putting some scientific accuracy on screen, rather than drawing interesting characters to invest the audience in events or stirring up excitement. Having said this, the emphasis on accuracy is pretty interesting in itself, especially when contrasted with the lunacies of so many fellow science fiction films of the time. Destination Moon is really the result of smart minds doing their best to come up with an absolutely plausible account of man landing on the Moon and its remarkably prescient stuff, from plans of the later Apollo missions to even the first words spoken on the eventual landing in 1969. Everything comes across accurate and the special effects are excellent (they bagged an Oscar) with fun depictions of weightlessness and low gravity, some ace matte painting work and shuttle take off excitement. Cast-wise no one impresses too much and Dick Wesson irritates in a lamely written everyman role, but things just about hold together until the lightly suspenseful end. Altogether I wasn't a big fan of this one, its respectable and probably a worthy watch for the serious science fiction fan but it isn't all that much fun. A fair 5/10 from me then.