Kronos

This film is a great piece of science fiction. I especially loved the fact that every time that Kronos is attacked it seemed to get stronger. You also get good comic relief from George O'Hanlon, better known to most people as the voice of George Jetson.

Kronos is a giant, blocky robot that is sent to Earth to siphon our energy. Nothing can stand in the behemoth's way, and apparently nothing can stop- it. Well, that is until earnest scientist Jeff Morrow of This Island Earth fame gets to working on its destruction. The film would be laughable, except for the fact that the giant robot is actually pretty impressive. Specia; effects are not bad for their time, and the cast plays it perfectly straight eve when the dialog is a bit off the wall. B-movie veteran Morris Ankrum and George O'Hanlon of Jetsons fame costar, along with the curvy Barbara Lawrence, whom we would see a lot more of on TV in subsequent years. Worth a look.

This movie reflects the cold war tensions of the fifties and captures the history of that time period on film. The movie is interesting for its presentation of modern age technology of its' time and the wonders that technology would bring. Movie goers who have been spoon-fed on modern digital animations and graphics will have no appreciation for the effort that went into this movie. This is obviously no academy award winner; however, one must view this film in its' proper context. A thoroughly enjoyable movie. 8 out of 10.

As must always be kept in mind while viewing classic SF cinema, one cannot and should not extricate a film from its historical context. Kronos is no exception. This is 1950's SF movie making at its marginal budgetary best.

Certainly the storyline taxes credibility, involving alien possession of humans, but the ETs at least have a practical purpose for invading than just doing it out of spite. Plus, the dirty work isn't accomplished with sundry flying saucers and blaster rays, but by a huge robot.

The acting is an uneven mixture of serious and melodramatic that oddly adds to the dark overtones of the fims early scenes. The dialogue, littered with quasi-scientific jargon, flows at near poetic tempo.

Ultimately, it is the clever resourcefulness of our nuclear-scientist heroes that wins the day. Now that has to be worth watching!

Yep, it's black & white and low budget but the film has great ideas and is executed incredibly well for the small amount of money they had to work with. The score by Bert Shefter and Paul Sawtell is probably the best the duo ever wrote. In fact, the title theme was so good it was re-worked for IT, THE TERROR FROM OUTER SPACE. Some people have said they think that cartoon animation was used for walking shots of KRONOS. I think it is stop-motion model animation, especially since Gene Warren is one of those credited for special effects and stop-motion was his specialty. Regardless of how it was achieved, KRONOS is about as much fun as they get. The special effects, while dated-looking now were as good as anything else you would see at the time it was released. I love this film which fortunately, has been preserved on an excellent widescreen DVD. The film has an enduring quality about it and never ceases to entertain me no matter how many times I see it. If you just like to have a plain old good time watching a movie, then I highly recommend KRONOS.