Welcome to The Morning After, where I share with you what I’ve seen over the past week either in film or television. On the film side, if I have written a full length review already, I will post a link to that review. Otherwise, I’ll give a brief snippet of my thoughts on the film with a full review to follow at some point later. For television shows, seasons and what not, I’ll post individual comments here about each of them as I see fit.

So, here is what I watched this past week:

Jurassic Park 3D

As visually stunning as ever, Steven Spielberg’s carefully guided 3D post-conversion of his 1993 blockbuster is as memorable now as it was twenty years ago.

Having aged incredibly well and showcasing visual effects that had never before been seen, Spielberg’s vision of the entertaining Michael Crichton novel moves swiftly from open to close carrying with it the wonder and excitement that I experienced as a High School Junior. There are some minor nit-picks to be had with the original film, but not enough to counteract the spectacular vision set forth. Spielberg has yet to match his unparalleled one-two punch in 1993 following up this marvelous piece with his most enduring tale, Schindler’s List

Oz the Great and Powerful

Having never seen Sam Raimi’s A Simple Plan, the best movie he’s ever made was Spider-Man 2. That streak continues with this disappointing, childish and ham-fisted 3D spectacle whose cinematic inspiration remains head-and-shoulders above this travesty.

Poorly acted by a host of talented actors: James Franco, Michelle Williams and Rachel Weisz, Raimi seems more interested in using the gimmick of 3D as an excuse to throw everything but the kitchen sink at the audience. After a spectacular opening credits sequence, the Kansas-set scenes are involving, but lightweight compared to The Wizard of Oz‘s opening and then the gimmick of 3D gives way to a gimmick that the original Victor Fleming film carried out flawlessly, by turning us from black-and-white to color in a world that’s almost too richly divergent to feel like a natural extension of the original Oz.

The story is poorly constructed and while there are a couple of handy twists that aren’t revealed in the trailer, the film largely moves from action sequences to action sequence with some pedantic dialogue in between. Rent the 1939 original and then pick up the Fairuza Balk 1985 feast Return to Oz. Don’t bother with this one if you want to relive the magic of your childhood.

Forbidden Planet

It isn’t often you get to see venerable actors like Walter Pidgeon doing genre flicks, especially something like Forbidden Planet Pre-dating Star Trek by nearly a decade, Fred M. Wilcox’s spacefaring adventure sets Leslie Nielsen and his crew down on a faraway planet where a long-lost ship was destined when it never returned. Once on the planet, he discovers the sole survivor of the ill-fated vessel who has uncovered the remains of an ancient civilization whose demise remains a mystery.

Pidgeon plays the philologist survivor with Anne Francis appearing as his daughter. Forbidden Planet is probably one of the earliest examples of modern space-exploring science fiction and it’s a stellar depiction of the tropes that so frequently populate recent films. Star Trek owes a great deal of its clever moralizing to Forbidden Planet, which may seem like your typical B movie, but naturally progresses the impressive foundation The Day the Earth Stood Still established five years prior.

Pidgeon and Nielsen deliver solid performances while Francis is a bit eccentric, though this is explained away by the script. The supporting cast is largely forgettable, but they don’t need to be to make this story fly. Although the film was only nominated for Best Special Effects, legendary Cedric Gibbons’ designs make for a most memorable scenic depiction of a foreign world. Many of the names that worked behind the scenes on the film were among the most noted names working in film at the time, including Oscar winners Hugh Hung, Edwin B. Willis, Walter Plunkett and William Tuttle (though his special Oscar for makeup would come a decade later). Some elements of the production seem a bit dated, but the basic construction and story feel timeless.