Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Keeley Coleman The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

tomimt Sci-fi is a difficult genre. The reason is, that most of the sci-fi movies are very effect driven, so that might become problem, if the movie has nothing else to offer besides the effects: bad plot makes clunky effects look even sillier. Very few sci-fi movies have managed to keep the charm and awe of movies like Metropolis, which manages to look good even todays standards.Ikarie XB1 is a bit of a mixed bag. Most of the sets look very good. The interiors of the space ship look nice and futuristic without looking silly, the space suit design is very clever, the acting is good and the plot is, while not the greatest thing ever written, relatively well executed. But what is very disappointing in the movie are the exterior shots of the space ships. They look cheap and the ship design is ridiculous with its box shapes and flying saucer shaped shuttles. I wasn't very positively surprised by the music either, which tries too hard to sound like futuristic tech noise.All in all, Ikarie XB1 was a quite positive surprise. I did laugh at couple of occasions, just because of the special effects, but it really isn't that bad of a movie, after you get past of those silly looking space ships. All in all, well worth a watch to a sci-fi fans

tfo222 In my opinion this movie is a basic sci-fi cult. The history of IKARIA is based on the novel "Magellan Cloud" of Stanislav Lem. The distance between the novel and the movie is similar to H.G. Wells "War of the Worlds" and Cruise-Spielberg movie or Lem's and Tarkovskij's "Solaris". According to reminiscence of Lem, this novel was not from his favorites. But at that time (1962) and I think nowadays also it is a remarkable novel and movie also. In interpretation of Soderbergh's and Clooney's Solaris they was finding the heaven or paradise to live there (and at the end Rheya and Kelvin have found it). Interpretation of Ikaria was full of agreements with "new" socialist ideas against capitalist ideas (dead casino in space, criticism of red nail polish, etc.) but in one time "between lines" there is the criticism of socialist reality during fifties and sixties (predestined madness and "no future" impasse: deadly illness from radioactive accident at the end of the Magellan Cloud novel). Mainly I agree with other comments. I hope sometime they will make and we will get the color DVD!

CatTales *some spoilers* One of those early sci-fi flicks full of nice touches and effects that still influence the genre today, from Star Trek to Minority Report. While the plot is about a lengthy trip to another solar system, a main complication is about a health problem that deranges one of the crew(later borrowed for classic Star Trek's "Naked Time" and more blatantly used in Trek's Next Gen "Naked Now" episode). Their view screen projects images larger-than-life (still used in movies today to look "cool"). While the ship models aren't too convincing, there's one scene when a mini-ship is docking and suddenly an astronaut waves hello from inside! It's a slightly off-kilter matte effect but a nice effort. The highlight of the film starts in the ballroom, with futuristic music and dancing, which is interrupted by an alarm (an encounter with a derelict ship). Then we watch as the astronauts investigate, their boots that light up with each slow-motion step, unknowingly performing a dance of death. It's a sequence worth watching a few times. No doubt the climax of the scene was a contemporary message about the dangers of nuclear weapons. The derelict ship also foreshadows what will happen to the crew of the ship. There's alot of good-natured humor in the film, similar to the other Russian classic "Planet of Storms." The final scene isn't too surprising, but it's better than no surprise at all (and was apparently borrowed 2 years later for the same final scene in the Italian "Planet of Vampires"). A nice little flick, which is in public domain so it's often sold by "independent distributors" on Ebay.

dtomek Ikarie XB1 is the first Czech SF movie. It was released in black and white only. The story relies to some extent on one of Stanislav Lem's books. The movie is still appreciated not only among science fiction fans in Czechia, but mainly because of its high ambitions. The movie not only shows a trip to proxima centauri, but it also tried to predict future music and dance.Due to the time it was created (early 60ies) there are some ideological compromises to the communism and cold war.