Planet Of Storms (Planeta Bur)

Cult movie enthusiasts may be aware of this Russian film as the 'source' material from which 'B" Movie mogul Roger Corman crafted a couple of his infamous 're-edited' Euroflix: "Voyage To The Prehistoric Planet" AKA "Planet of Prehistoric Women" - neither of which is held in particularly high regard. Corman obviously recognized the 'potential' of the quality in this elaborately produced foreign space opera and attempted to capitalize upon it by adding English dubbed dialog that eliminated the original nationalistic Soviet sentiments from the plot and (awkwardly) injected some American actors into the mix to (hopefully) give more attraction for the domestic market. A later re-working also added some throw-away pulchritude in a further desperate attempt to entice the public. With this release of the complete ORIGINAL Russian film - modern viewers may finally have the opportunity to see what got Corman so 'excited', and the passage of time has allowed even the Soviet sub-text to take on an interesting historical relevancy. It would appear that, flushed with the success of the launch of the first Sputnik satellite, the Russian cinema spared no expense in producing an opulent science fiction production based on the premise of a subsequent manned expedition to the mysterious planet Venus: "Planet of Storms" ("Planeta Bur") The film opens as 3 separate Russian space craft are approaching the cloud shrouded planet on an exploratory mission. One of the ships is suddenly destroyed by a meteor collision and the 6 remaining crew members of the surviving 2 space craft decide to land on Venus - despite the compromised situation. While the only female of the mission is delegated to remain 'in orbit' all the men (and a nifty robot) descend to the planet's surface in two groups and spend the majority of the movie trying to 'find one another' so they can return to their space ships and thence back to earth. While it is evident that the Director and production designers were trying to be fairly scientifically accurate in their depictions of space travel - they let their imaginations loose once the cosmonauts set foot on the planet Venus, and provide an alien world populated by a variety of fantastic life forms. While some of Venus's denizens are portrayed as similar to earthly prehistoric creatures (Brontosaurs & Pterosaurs fer example! ) there are also some very cool other-worldly plant forms and humanoid reptiles in evidence to menace the earthlings as they make their explorations of land and sea in a futuristic space-car vehicle. Given the time frame of its' original production, the special effects for this film are pretty impressive in scope and execution and can still be appreciated today for both their period virtuosity, as well as, their dated kitschy aspects. "Planet of Storms" is every bit as engrossing as the best Hollywood produced George Pal SciFi space exploration epics and provides more fantastic elements to be enjoyed. I found this to be great fun and a seminal piece of international SciFi well worth checking out. The DVD is presented in color - Russian language w/ English sub-titles - the picture quality is excellent. Extras include some interesting 'newsreel' shorts that chronicle the US/Russian 'space race' of the 1960's. Highly recommended!

This Big Budget Gem may be Russia's Best Sci-Fi Flick Ever. Don't even mention (Snore, Snore) 'Solaris' to me. Kind of goofy but the production values (for the time) were top notch.

The video quality is quite good - the best I've seen. The subtitles are not so great. There are many misspellings which could have been resolved with some proof reading. There are several places where there are no subtitles for dialogue. In all, it's a rather good release. But the problems in the subtitles detract from it a bit.

BOTTOM LINE: Here's your chance to watch this great little science fiction nugget from behind the Iron Curtain, intact and un-butchered - without all the redressed Roger Corman nonsense tacked on. This transfer (from Video Dimensions) is better for sure than the Public Domain junk out there, but is hardly a reference quality copy - especially considering the asking price. Still, films like this are a (very small) niche specialty, that will never be in high enough demand to warrant big studio money for an extensive cutting edge restoration, so let's just be thankful that someone even bothered to take the time to bring it to our shores. NOTE: There are at least 3 other releasing companies (Lenfilm Video, GI Studios, and PR Studios) who offer this. The technical portion of my review refers to the Video Dimensions version ONLY. THOUGHTS: When I first saw this, like most folks, it was via the cannibalized Roger Corman 'adaption' VOYAGE TO THE PREHISTORIC PLANET, (and later the even stupider VOYAGE TO THE PLANET OF PREHISTORIC WOMEN). While silliness of the highest order, there was enough of the original Russian film in there that I found myself hoping to someday be able to view it unaltered. It was worth it. Now don't get me wrong. It's not like comparing TERROR OF TINY TOWN to UNFORGIVEN. The original film is very much the same in its uncut version as VttPP is, only without the questionable aid of Basil Rathbone and Faith Domergue. The astronauts in this version are more prone to postulating and getting in touch with their feelings, but the action and plot are more or less identical. And in my opinion their robot, John, is still one of the best onscreen automatons ever, equal in many ways to FORBIDDEN PLANET's Robby. His appearance is striking, if not as polished, and the actual suit's articulation is impressively engineered. John, along with the Soviet crew's way-cool hover car, raise this film to a level far above most of the sci-fi produced anywhere else up to that time; pretty much until Kubrick's 2001 was released. THE DVD: I honestly bought this as much for the opportunity of seeing it in a better, less tattered and faded print than as seeing it uncut and in its original form. In that area it only partially succeeds. The transfer is alright, but it won't have you jumping for joy. The focus is still soft and the audio is slightly muffled sounding. But again, it looks far better than any copy of VOYAGE TO THE PREHISTORIC PLANET that I've ever seen (and I've suffered through quite a few, equally awful PD releases). The subtitles are often stilted and more than a little structurally awkward. Clearly, whomever oversaw the Russian translation was not particularly fluent in English. There are a LOT of errors, both in spelling and especially in syntax. It's too bad someone didn't give the translated script a final once-over, to polish it a bit. Would've made the release much better. Still, I'm glad I got a chance to view this charming slice of Soviet Sci-Fi unaltered, finally! If someone someday ever restores this properly and releases it on Blu-ray, I will definitely double-dip. It's a terrific little piece of cinematic history; a time-worn relic from years past that still warrants a look today. The movie itself is a 4.5 STAR treasure, this particular DVD release however only scores 3 STARS from the Sci-Fi Kaiju Guy.

I thoroughly enjoyed getting to see this ORIGINAL version. I have wanted to see this in it's original form for a long long time and this DVD did not disappoint. I wished it had included the documentary about Pavel Klushantsev, the pioneering filmmaker whose innovative filming techniques fascinate. I am not sure if the original film was in a 1:33 aspect ratio, but that is how it is on this DVD. English subtitles. I thoroughly enjoyed this.