Where Was George Pal When We Needed Him?

Rating: 5/10 (2 February 2006)

Watch "Destination Moon", "When Worlds Collide", "War of the Worlds", "Conquest of Space", "The Time Machine" and you'll gain deep insight into the deranged genius of Stanley Kubrick. George Pal influenced "2001" in many, many ways. His space and disaster movies moved the Fifties like Stanley's moved the late Sixties. The dramatic paradigm and world-view shifts between the Pals and the Kubricks are a wonder to behold in hindsight....But I trow the PAL movies will be watched by more people for their deeper and more resonant, Christian themes long after the evolutionist, misanthropic, irony-drenched black comedies of Kubrick are shelved.... INCLUDING "2001" Yes, in light of the superior Pal space films, you may watch "2001" as a dark, ironic comedy, produced by a man so self-obsessed as to border on the megalomaniacal! Read the stories of folks who actually had to work with Stanley. Now compare the fan base of George Pal. Compare the outputs! Some of Stanley's movies are unwatchable today; the charming Puppetoons will never lose their luster.... but I digress. It will be enough just for you to watch "Conquest of Space" to see what I am talking about. Kubrick simply copied Pal with his own deviant, derivative drivel! He out-banals banal!