Planet Terror (Robert Rodriguez 2007)
Posted on November 07 at 19.19, 2007 by Eric Mahleb
Planet Terror has over-indulgent geekiness written all over it. B-movies have always been made with a specific crowd in mind, the type that can easily look beyond the obvious cinematic limitations of the movie and instead can find in it an interesting form of entertainment, and in some cases, the epitome of coolness, whatever that may mean. With the passing of time, these movies also have the potential to attract additional viewers through the ‘nostalgia effect’. When watching such films, one is taken back to the 50s, 60s, or, as it relates to Planet Terror, to the 70s when the Grindhouse double bill developed its legions of followers. Personally, and obviously one can deduce from this that I am not an admirer of these Grindhouse films, I believe that it is the knowledge of going back to a specific point in time, to experience a piece of ‘culture’ from a certain decade and country, that makes some of these films watcheable, and, at times, enjoyable. Most of them were bad films, but they were not always made with the knowledge that they were bad, or if they were, time has taught us to look back on them with anthropological compassion and with some kind of tolerant understanding.
However, when Tarantino and Rodriguez had the bright idea to come up with a deliberately bad double feature called Grindhouse (Planet Terror and Death Proof, marketed separately in Europe), to honor the past, and in Tarantino’s words, to offer viewers something ‘fresh and original’, they either must have assumed that the entire world lives on the same geeky film planet as they do and would rush to the cinemas to see their films, or, as is most likely the case, they just decided that they wanted to please themselves and do something to pay homage to a form of cinema they both love. I can just picture the both of them sitting in some room, writing the script, and telling each other: ‘a machine gun instead of a leg? Right on!’, ‘let’s make the reel look old. Now that’s fresh’, ‘and then the head explodes…how cool is that?’
The problem is that none of this is in fact that fresh or original (unlike both director’s early work). It’s old. And it only works as new for about 15 minutes and then wears off quickly, leaving behind a profusion of mindless and silly gore, and, regrettably, not one iota of scariness…even worse: the film is not funny. What kind of a Zombie film does not make you either laugh or scream?
I said to a friend ‘it’s a bad movie’. To which he responded: ‘That’s the point’. But, no, I believe his answer is the one missing the point. The real point is: it’s a bad movie. The fact that it is an intentional bad movie does not turn it into a good movie. And let us not be deceived by an artsy-fartsy, Rodriguez/Tarantino-can-do-no-wrong-because-they-are-so-cool, you-either-get-it-or-you-don’t temptation to see something that isn’t there. Remove the names of the directors, and the appeal of the film drastically goes down.
Of course, the debate between B-movies lovers and bashers has been raging for decades and it will not be solved today. If Rodriguez and Tarantino were hoping to please the lovers, they probably succeeded. If, on the other hand, they were attempting to attract some of the skeptics, I believe they failed.
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6 Responses to “Planet Terror”
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Alex Says:
February 22, 2009 at 16.45I disagree with your review. I personally found the movie very entertaining, though I dislike most B-Movies to the exception of Hardware for example. Planet Terror was not a comedy, however it did have a lot of black humor and a feel of ‘coolness’. Oh well that’s just me. Not much to comment on Tarantino but I think Rodriguez (writer and creator of Planet Terror) has done really great work so far; each of his movies delivering thrills, excitement and elements of action that are cool in their own rights.
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Josh Says:
February 25, 2009 at 14.00Look at the posters for this film. Look at the DVD case or whatever. When you see a machine gun-legged Rose McGowan standing proudly under the words “fully loaded”, are you really expecting something “fresh” or “scary”?
This film was absolutely ridiculous and relentlessly conventional in terms of narrative structure. But paradoxically, there is something refreshing about watching a film that does not try to offer you something profound, a film that lacks any form of restraint. True, it was not an overly funny film (an exception being the trailer for “Machete”..). But it was visually gorgeous. The fact that it was ‘mindless’ did not matter because it was so aesthetically pleasing and exaggerated.I’d say that if you “Remove the names of the directors”, your lowered expectations will allow you to enjoy this film on the level that it was intended to be enjoyed at.
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Planet Terror « The Slag Heap Says:
February 25, 2009 at 14.06[...] Until then, I will simply place a link to some other person’s blog, onto which I have commented and disagreed with their views on the first of two Grindhouse films. Follow my lead and disagree with this person. We will start a blogwar, assuming such a thing exists. Anyway. Saw III and all. I’m out. Posted by neuraldisarray Filed in Analysis, Criticism, Film ·Tags: blogwars, grindhouse, Planet Terror, saw 3 [...]
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Conventional Reel Says:
August 31, 2009 at 7.43Hope you haven’t copy pasted this from somewhere else ;). Nice post.
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Eric Says:
October 11, 2009 at 15.24thanks for the comments guys. Didn’t like the film much but it looks like lots of people did. Most of my friends did so….
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Kick-Ass - Films and Documentaries about Sci-Fi, Futurism and Social & Environmental Issues Says:
April 24, 2010 at 19.59[...] is likely that the people who took issue with my review of Planet Terror are probably not going to enjoy what i am about to say about Kick-Ass, a film that currently enjoys [...]