Plot
Three Soviet spacecraft (the “Sirius”, the “Vega”, and the “Capella”) are about to shed light on the question of life on Venus by executing the first human landing on our cloud-enshrouded neighbor planet. But the “Capella” is tragically struck by a disastrous meteor, destroying the ship and killing its crew.
Moscow’s official mission plan requires three ships, and so the remaining cosmonauts are ordered to wait months for a replacement craft to arrive from Earth, but the impatient “Vega” crew (“Just waiting without landing is a torture”) quickly devise a risky alternate plan to set foot on the enigmatic planet.
What the Russians – and their problematic robot – encounter is a landscape of fog and broad expanses of water, populated by carnivorous plants and strange creatures that resemble Earth’s prehistoric fauna. But an even bigger surprise awaits…
Earth is with you!
Critique
4Minor classic of Soviet sci-fi, Pavel Klushantsev’s film is mainly known for its influence on the genre, serving as a role model for a large number of science fiction stories revolving around the exploration of alien planets. That having been said, “Planeta Bur” hasn’t aged well, stifled by an exasperatingly slow pacing and weighed down by a plethora of onerous ramblings on the meaning of human existence and the role of man in the cosmos – themes that would require a writer of Andrei Tarkovsky’s caliber to pull off.
Right from the outset the dialogue comes off as terribly didactic and dated (“Mechanics is the science of the future”), while the screenplay reveals a level of naivete that makes “A Trip on the Moon” (1902) by Georges Méliès look almost like a science documentary by comparison.
Wooden performances by a cast that was apparently sleepwalking. Additionally, “Robot John” stands out for being one of the most inept, unreliable robots in cinematic history – unbelievably clumsy, he doesn’t hesitate to break the fundamental laws of robotics, sacrificing his creators to avoid damage to himself.
More Info
Quotes
- Venus should be seen with human eyes, not with photocells.
- Earth is with you!
Trivia
- In English, the film is often informally referred to as “Planet of the Storms”, “Planet of Storms”, “Planet of Tempests”, “Planeta Burg”, and “Storm Planet”, although it was never actually released in the US in its original form until the 1990s, when it came out on home video. The film is better known in the US due to two American TV movies (“Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet” and “Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women”) which plundered and reedited its special effects and most of its primary footage, adding new scenes which alter the original story.
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| Product name | Price | |
|---|---|---|
 | Planet Of Storms aka. Planeta Bur |
| Nome del prodotto | Prezzo | |
|---|---|---|
 | I 7 Navigatori Dello Spazio |
| Product name | Price | |
|---|---|---|
 | Planet Of Storms aka. Planeta Bur |
| Nombre del producto | Precio |
|---|
| Produktname | Preis |
|---|
| Nom du produit | Prix | |
|---|---|---|
 | La Planète des tempêtes |
| Product name | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| Planet Of Storms aka. Planeta Bur |