Of course, nothing that was achieved in "20 Million Miles to Earth" was what you could call original. It had a very similar idea and style to many movies that were before and would come after. An incident involving space travel and landing on another planet results in the birth of a creature on Earth that is seemingly immune to our weapons. A rough and tough leading character who has a position of authority stars in the film. Alongside him are the typical secondary characters for a monster flick: an under-developed love interest, a scientist wanting to preserve the monster, politics wanting to eliminate it, and so on and so forth.
The creature in the film was brought to life through the fantastic art of stop-motion animation, done by visual effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen. As in most films, it is flawless with perfectly smooth movement performed by the creature. There is a battle sequence, again typical for a 50s monster film, and although it's nothing primal like the T-Rex fight from the 1933 "King Kong", is fascinating.
"20 Million Miles to Earth", while not what I'd consider a classic monster movie, is the perfect film to watch on a weekend morning or evening. And it still holds out today, fifty years since its debut screen appearance, as a fun monster movie.
The creature in the film was brought to life through the fantastic art of stop-motion animation, done by visual effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen. As in most films, it is flawless with perfectly smooth movement performed by the creature. There is a battle sequence, again typical for a 50s monster film, and although it's nothing primal like the T-Rex fight from the 1933 "King Kong", is fascinating.
"20 Million Miles to Earth", while not what I'd consider a classic monster movie, is the perfect film to watch on a weekend morning or evening. And it still holds out today, fifty years since its debut screen appearance, as a fun monster movie.