Movie Notes: Saturn 3
= 1 star
Starring Kirk Douglas, Farrah Fawcett, Harvey Keitel
Directed by Stanley Donen
Synopsis
Adam (Kirk Douglas) and Alex (Farrah Fawcett), research scientists living on moon of Saturn, are visited by Benson (Harvey Keitel), delivering a robot assistant named Hector.
The Good
- Gets interesting when Benson constructs Hector, a horrific combination of human biology and mechanics in the form of a metal skeleton with tube filled fluids and a gigantic brain tube in its torso. The robot has a “direct input” brain link to Benson, who unfortunately transfers negative personality traits to the Frankenstein-esque robot.
- Neat sequence of trusting a robot to remove something from an eyeball, a particularly vulnerable human part.
The Bad
- Douglas and Keitel can’t do much with their simplistic characters.
- Fawcett — well — she runs around in a bed sheet and displays a surprising amount of inventive fashions for a woman living on a space station with just one other person. She also recites lines in a very dull monotone, making her most convincing line: “I don’t know.”
- The special effects are bad, really bad. Any exterior shot is painfully obvious as a miniature or a matte painting. The interiors are a very odd, cheap mix of every half-baked sci-fi movie you can think of.
- Keitel’s dialogue was dubbed because the director wasn’t happy with his Bronx accent.
- The passable plot premise eventually collapses into a rather standard sci-fi horror situation of kill or be killed, with loads of logical inconsistencies and unintentionally funny moments along the way. The ultimate survival plan is a silly variation on the dug pit with wooden stakes.
Conclusion
One would think that after Star Wars (1977) and Alien (1979), the bar would have been raised high enough that crappy sci-fi like this wouldn’t have been greenlit. If this flick had a production date of 1976 (Logan’s Run) the schlock would have been tolerable, but it dates from 1980.
Ultimately, I just found myself gawking at the patchwork set design and Fawcett’s goofy outfits, both not enough to justify watching a movie. Skip it.
IMDB: Saturn 3
Wikipedia: Saturn 3
Rotten Tomatoes: Saturn 3 17%
I’d watch it for the laughs.
80s movie ripe for remake — even as a TV Movie (feasible with CGI). The ideas and themes are good, but their execution wasn’t — due to last-minute budget cuts. Remake should include two characters for the Hector Robot to dispose of, the whole James/Benson confusion should be jettisoned, and the ending (in the movie Farrah’s Alex is seen heading for Earth alone) could be stronger. Apparently director James Cameron attempted getting a remake greenlit until 2007/2008. But this doesn’t need to be a $100 million FX-fest…probably better if it isn’t. Do you agree, disagree, other? Post a comment — now!