One of special-effects wizard Ray Harryhausen's pre-Seventh Voyage of Sinbad efforts, 20 Million Miles to Earth borrows a few pages from King Kong. An American spaceship crashlands off the coast of Sicily. The rescue party discovers that the astronauts have inadvertently brought back a curious gelatinous mass from the planet Venus. This lump of goo rapidly evolves into be a living reptilian creature, which scientists label an "Ymir". While being subjected to laboratory experimentation, the Ymir
begins growing by leaps and bounds, and before long the gigantic monstrosity has escaped and is wreaking havoc in Rome. After battling a zoo elephant and taking a swim in the Tiber, the gargantuan creature holes up in the Colosseum, where the film's pyrotechnic finale occurs. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
The lead actor looks a little like Steve Martin, which got me to thinking that digitally inserting that comedian could make something out of this imploded building of a movie.
Aside from over-interpreting the monster movie's politics, there's no denying that the true star of 20 Million Miles to Earth is clearly animator Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion monster.
As in the best of Harryhausen's creations, the creature from outer space has an endearing personality that comes through its skittish movements and uncomprehending face.
20 Million Miles to Earth gave no boost to the development of genre movies. It did, though, further the evolution of Harryhausen's skill and artistry, not to mention his presently exalted position as his films' auteur.
This 2007 two-disc DVD edition's ... restored and enhanced original version makes a worthwhile upgrade if you already own the flat-screen 'Ray Harryhausen Signature Collection' DVD that's still in print from 2002.
The biggest misconception about "Ray Harryhausen movies" is that people are under the impression that he was the sole creative driving force behind them when all he did was the special and mechanical effects. There are very few times when a film he works on turns out to be good. 20 Million Miles to Earth falls
somewhere in between and winds up just being mediocre. The story itself is pretty silly and boring for the most part, mainly because there isn't any real tension for the characters other than the fact that there is a monster on a rampage. In other words, a lack of drama. Actually this movie reeks of King Kong, without being quite as good. There's some excellent camera work and some very good stop motion (as per usual), but the boring story doesn't save it. See it to see Harryhausen's work on display, which goes back to my original point about why people remember these films. His work is the most impressive thing about them.
December 28, 2011
Tim Salmons
Super Reviewer
A strange creature comes 20 million miles to Earth, obviously. This movie was okay, it has some great clay animation, but the story is kind of silly.
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