Cyborg 2087 (1966)
IMDb meta-data is runtime is 1 hour and 26 minutes (it seemed far longer), rated 5.2 by 540 generous souls.
Genre: Sy Fy; Species: Time Travel; Subspecies: Cold War.
Verdict: Ed Wood did better.
Klaatu is back with another silver suit. This alien does not look a day older and has — contrary to the laws of physics — not gained weight since his 1951 visit which ended with his death. He’s better now. Diet or die?
Things are not going too well in 2087, Republicans have taken over regulating everything in the name of small government, even which orifices are used for…. Moreover, the two-minute hate has been extended to 24-hours a day. In the name of god.
However, a plucky but silent gang has decided to kill the butterfly that started it all, by sending a mindless Cyborg back in time to eliminate the scientist – it is always a scientist messing things up! – who invented Republicans when he mixed noxious chemicals and left them to themselves while he watched Gilligan’s Island. Since the professor is marooned, it up to the Cyborg.
The cast list has a collection of experienced character actors who have little or nothing to do: Harry Carey Jr, usually seen in Westerns; Warren Stevens, back from the forbidden planet; Wendell Corey, slurring words after lunch again; Eduard Franz, adding European authenticity to the mumbo jumbo science; and Karen Steele another Westerner, as a PhD from SWU (Script Writers University).
The production is ponderous, threadbare, humourless, sanctimonious, and more boring than watching cement set (because with it there is always a chance bird might land on it, a dog run across it, a cricket ball plop into it, or something, but here there is no chance of anything happening). The screenplay is a void of both thought and deed. The production values came from Filene’s Basement. The camera work reveals just how cheap and empty the sets are, and many of the extras were recruited at a senior citizens club, it would seem, so slowly do they move without the Zimmer frames. The director must have been at the Prozac.
We have seen time travel aplenty, and the theme of a future agent returning to head off disaster has been done very well but not here. After Klaatu killed the dog, I turned him in to the SPCA and let the movie run with the sound down, just in case something caught my attention. Nope. (Yes, I know we later learn the dog just passed out from boredom and revived, but…well, any excuse to stop the pain was welcome.) One of the best on this to-the-rescue-time-travelling-theme is Harlan Ellison’s ‘Demon with a Glass Hand’ (Outer Limits 1964) which can be found on You Tube.
Michael Rennie’s career must have an explanation. His IMDb credits do not match his on-screen presence: Tall, chiseled features, confident, well spoken, trim, commanding. Yet his movies are mostly B and C, if that. Klaatu was probably his biggest and best role, and it was downhill thereafter to this one. Yes I know he can’t act but that has never been a drawback in Hollywood, and his wooden countenance is perfect for soulless cyborg. He looks as bored as I felt but the show went on and on and he stayed awake unlike the dog. What a trouper!