20 Million Miles to Earth

As a huge fan of the work of visual effects wizard Ray Harryhausen (Clash of the Titans, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, Mysterious Island, The Valley of Gwangi), I can't say I was disappointed, but I wasn’t thrilled either. As it happens with him, some of the effects sequences are great, some weaker, some are quite naive. The monster itself looks very nice and its interaction with the actors in some sequences is perfect (e.g. the fight with the farmer), but the overused rear projections were too flashy and some really didn't look good. The fight with the elephant was excellent, but here again the proportions were very wrong. While the monster was about ten times taller than a human at the time, when it fought the elephant, they were about the same size (I've never seen such a big elephant). And I can't help mentioning one interesting fact: while the vast majority of monster-movies are set in the USA, here the filmmakers set their sights on Italy. Perhaps because of the final climax in the visually stunning Colosseum, but it didn't really work anyway. Average in the genre, average in Harryhausen's work as well. (10/10/2004)

A relaxing trifle, which has momentum, builds up and entertains, but beware! Don't bother to think! Then maybe you won't mind that the monster changes size (and I don't mean its "natural" growth, but actual mistakes) depending on whether it's tearing down a bridge (the worst special effects in the entire film), fighting an elephant (a great scene that Harryhausen kind of remembered in the later The Valley of Gwangi), or standing on the Coliseum and threateningly swinging towards the tanks. I have to also mention the incredibly (unintentionally) funny part taking place in the barn, when the brave farmer first stabs the monster in the back with a pitchfork, and the even braver army officer beats it with a shovel... And only then one of the soldiers thinks "Let's try to shoot at it, since we already have the rifles with us". Two and a half stars. (29/05/2011)

What can we say? If the movie "20 Million Miles to Earth" didn't have Ray Harryhausen, it would have long been forgotten. Even so, it's not something that stands out significantly, but the animation of the monsters is simply mesmerizing. Ray knew how to do his job and once again offered the viewer unique shots that no one else could master so perfectly. Unfortunately, the rest of the film is really nothing special. It's a great shame that he couldn't work with better scripts. (10/12/2013)