ChanBot i must have seen a different film!!

ShangLuda Admirable film.

FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

MARIO GAUCI Gordon's debut film certainly gave no indication of his longevity within the fantasy genre: while it is not in the same awful league as, say, ROBOT MONSTER (1953) or Ed Wood's entire body of work, it is all the worse for being dishonest! One simply cannot play up the notion of a gigantic prehistoric creature, and then provide your audience with nothing more than a magnified lizard – to say nothing of having the gall to describe it as being akin to a Tyrannosaurus Rex! For what it is worth, the premise (scripted by Tom Gries!) of an Earth-like planet surfacing in our solar system which, when inspected, is found to still be in its infancy i.e. the age of dinosaurs and active volcanoes (though, thankfully, we do not get to see monosyllabic caveman roaming about) was not too shabby. However, like I noted before, if the budget does not extend to at least a competent level of special effects (after copious stock footage had already served for the space flight with, amusingly, an utter dearth of shots displaying the astronauts inside the vessel!), it would have been better to undertake a more manageable venture in the first place! As it stands, even if barely lasting an hour, the running-time is padded-out with a plethora of scenes revolving around the things I hate most in life: in fact, reptiles of all varieties put in an appearance here (with a particular astronaut being the brunt of most attacks, including a one-on-one with an alligator and – genuinely heart-stopping – being slithered all over by a giant dark-skinned snake)! The titular monster, then, shows his dominance over the rest by winning out in separate combats with another crocodile and an iguana. Perhaps the most outrageous element of all is the decision by the heroes to nuke the place (why would they even require a nuclear weapon during a scouting mission…for what right do humans have to destroy the life-form of another world, however hostile its reception?!) – but, of course, with no harm done to themselves – when they prove unable to overcome "King Dinosaur"!

daikaiju1954 To all animal lovers out there here's a movie you will hate for the rest of your life. The story is about four astronauts who travel to a new planet called Nova that has just entered Earth's solar system. The crew begins studying the planet to see if it's suitable for a possible Earth colony. they soon encounter and battle giant insects, prehistoric mammals, dinosaurs, and - on an island - the titular character, King Dinosaur, a putative Tyrannosaurus Rex(iguana). Eventually, the scientists blow up the island with an atomic bomb, killing all of its inhabitants. This was Bert I. Gorgon's first film, both as writer and director. It's a pretty crappy movie, as even B-movies go. The "dinosaurs" are an alligator, an iguana, a gila monster, turtle and an armadillo. They're just plain old earth creatures filmed crawling over model landscapes as if they were huge. The movies title should have been called Planet of the Giant Animals.

MartinHafer Note: Anyone who is sensitive and dislikes the idea of watching reptiles rip each other apart should NOT watch this film. PETA members in particular are warned! This is a sad excuse for a film, but it is so bad that bad movie buffs might enjoy watching it just to laugh at how bad a bad movie can be. Did I mention it was bad?! The most obvious problem with the film is that the film makers took a ton of stock footage of practically EVERYTHING and strung them together in a "brilliant" attempt to pad the film and stretch it out to just over an hour while doing little actual filming. At the beginning of the movie, tons of stock footage of jet planes, V-2 rockets and military stuff fills the screen. Later, on the "other planet", we are treated to even more stock shots--most of which are nature clips that are sloppily integrated and rather irrelevant. It's made worse when the actors(?) all react rather poorly to these wonderful delights! Uggghh! I don't think I've seen another film (other than documentaries) that used so much stock footage.The film is about an expedition to a new planet that just appears out of the blue and drifts into an orbit near the Earth. How convenient, huh?! The four best and brightest(???????) that the USA had to offer would seem to indicate that people in the 1950s were all idiots, as again and again they do stupid things that anyone with a brain or training would not do. First, they explore so far from their ship that they get lost. Second, at night when one of them is supposed to be keeping watch, he and his hot babe go out in the darkness and he nearly gets torn to pieces by one of hundreds of animals that look EXACTLY like those on Earth. Third, every time anything bad happens, the blonde lady begins screaming or crying hysterically--even though she's supposed to be a respected scientist. Fourth, although they are to briefly survey the planet and return to Earth, they go way out of their way--many miles and into dangerous situations that they should have avoided. And, speaking of dangerous situations, the dinosaurs from the title are such scary monsters as iguanas and baby alligators that are filmed up close fighting. Oooh, scary stuff, huh?! To make things worse, the film makers actually toss the iguana onto the gator and just let them fight for real!! That poor iguana!! Even though in the film it supposedly wins this fight with the gator, you can clearly see the gator tearing into the iguana's flesh. There are also fur-covered elephants and giant armadillos (yikes).Although most of the planet seems awfully nice (except for the island filled with monstrous reptiles), the team's response to these discoveries is to nuke the island! Yes, I said nuke it!! I think the film makers chose to do this because, frankly, they had footage of a nuclear explosion (even though there was a hair stuck on the lens) and couldn't resist using it--even if it made no sense!! And the ending credits appear over top the mushroom cloud as the film then fades! Overall, a truly awful film--and one that even Ed Wood would have probably disliked! By the way, I could be wrong, but I think the 'pet' they discovered on the planet was a kinkajou.

barcrab Initiated into film with 1954's Serpent Island, which I would love to see, Bert I. Gordon got his chance to direct with King Dinosaur, whose being influenced by King Kong is indicated in in the title and the monster battles.The mini-epic, filmed in Bronson Caverns etc. on a mini budget, starred Bill Bryant, who had minor roles in some other films like CHISUM and appeared on TV in westerns as well. He plays one of four intrepid scientists who venture to newly discovered Planet Nova, which has just entered the solar system. Well, actually this occurs after a barrage of about 15 min of stock footage accompanied by Marvin Miller filling us in with about every piece of useless information we might need.Anyway, they eventually get to Nova and discover an island and some monsters, walking and talking a lot along the way.That's the main weakness of the script and film in general; an all-encompassing lack of genuine intrigue. However, it's kind of fun for sci-fi fans and devotees of Gordon's to see his slightly amateurish first feature, even if it means sitting through a lot of stale scenarios to get to those full-blooded reptile brawls.