Film

War of the Planets

A 1966 Italian space opera where mind-controlling aliens threaten Earth. Colorful, campy, and utterly earnest about its modest ambitions, it's a time capsule of Cold War sci-fi fever dreams. For anyone who loves watching cinema reach beyond its budget and finds charm in the gap between vision and execution.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love gleefully cheap 1960s space adventures where the paper-thin sets and earnest dialogue are part of the charm, and a plot about telepathic invaders is more fun than frightening.

Skip it if you want tight pacing and convincing effects, since the slow stretches and the menace are handled with more enthusiasm than polish.

What it asks of you: At ninety-six minutes it moves briskly, and it wants a light, indulgent mood more than close attention, with its tension running on bursts of action rather than slow-building dread.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Planet of the Apes1968

A genuinely intelligent sci-fi parable about civilization and prejudice, wrapped in spectacular makeup and adventure. It takes its premise seriously while remaining gripping entertainment.

But The sequels' quality varies wildly, and the originals' social commentary can feel heavy-handed on modern rewatches.

Planet of the Apes poster

Barbarella1968

Campy, colorful, and unapologetically fun—a space adventure that knows exactly what it is. Jane Fonda in an iconic role, wild production design, and a genuine spirit of play throughout.

But The kitsch is intentional but relentless; if you want serious sci-fi, look elsewhere. Sexual politics haven't aged well either.

Barbarella poster

2001: A Space Odyssey1968

The gold standard of philosophical space cinema. Kubrick's vision of humanity's place in the cosmos is patient, stunning, and genuinely unsettling in ways that still work.

But Nearly three hours of deliberate pacing. Long stretches without dialogue or plot movement will test your patience, possibly fatally.

2001: A Space Odyssey poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from War of the Planets

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Journey to the Seventh Planet1962

Both are low-budget Cold War sci-fi films that pit space explorers against telepathic alien intelligence, sharing the same optimistic-yet-paranoid sensibility about humanity's place in the cosmos.

A Danish-American space film with the same earnest, colorful aesthetic and alien-threat premise, but weirder and more imaginative about what an alien world might look like. A direct spiritual cousin.

But Cheaper and slower than War of the Planets, with long passages of dialogue that test patience. Genuinely dull stretches between the good bits.

Journey to the Seventh Planet poster
More like this (8)

The Italian Job1969

British heist energy and Mediterranean charisma. Fast, clever, funny, and gorgeously shot. The remake can't touch the original's style and warmth.

But The plot is fairly straightforward; it relies entirely on charm and execution rather than narrative complexity.

The Italian Job poster

Escape from the Planet of the Apes1971

The third film in the series but genuinely inventive—it reverses the premise and surprises you. Smart, funny, and surprisingly touching without losing the franchise's edge.

But You need context from the first film to fully appreciate it. Also, the ending is genuinely bleak in ways that sting.

Escape from the Planet of the Apes poster

Flash Gordon1980

Dino De Laurentiis leans into pulp with perfect sincerity. Outrageous costumes, a bombastic score by Queen, and actors giving it everything. Pure joy and spectacle.

But The dialogue is knowingly ridiculous; if campy melodrama makes you groan, this will exhaust you.

Flash Gordon poster

Zardoz1974

A genuinely bizarre 1970s British sci-fi film that commits absolutely to its vision. Surreal, ambitious, and utterly unlike anything else—fascinating precisely because it doesn't quite work.

But It's pretentious, incoherent, and occasionally dull. You have to be in the mood for a weird failure to appreciate it.

Zardoz poster

Fantastic Voyage1966

The same year as War of the Planets but with a Hollywood budget and Raquel Welch. Colorful, inventive miniaturization nonsense that's actually gripping and visually delightful.

But The science is complete garbage, but it was complete garbage then too—if you need believability, skip it.

Fantastic Voyage poster

The 10th Victim1965

An Italian sci-fi satire starring Ursula Andress, about a future where hunting humans is legal sport. Sleek, stylish, and darkly witty in ways that hold up better than you'd expect.

But The satire is blunt, and the plot meanders; it's style over substance, which works until it doesn't.

The 10th Victim poster

The Fifth Element1997

Both celebrate the visual and tonal excess of pulp sci-fi while leaving plot coherence as an afterthought. One is cheap and earnest, the other expensive and ironic, but they share a gleeful disregard for believability.

Luc Besson takes the colorful space-opera aesthetic of 1960s B-movies and gives it a $90 million budget. It's War of the Planets' DNA crossed with genuine visual genius and Bruce Willis's perpetual exhaustion.

But It's bloated, the plot is nonsense, and it indulges in heavy-handed preaching. Also, Diva Plavalaguna's performance is polarizing—you'll either love it or find it insufferable.

The Fifth Element poster

Andromeda Nebula1967

Both are products of 1960s Cold War sci-fi anxiety about alien contact and mind control, but where War of the Planets is Western paranoia and action, Andromeda Nebula is Soviet optimism and contemplation—the same era's opposite poles.

A Soviet space epic based on Ivan Yefremov's novel, offering a completely different sci-fi tradition—idealistic, humanist, and visually stunning in its own way. A glimpse into how the other side of the Cold War imagined the future.

But It's slow, dialogue-heavy, and deeply concerned with philosophy rather than plot. Dubbed or subtitled, with a glacial pace that demands patience most won't give.

Andromeda Nebula poster

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