They lamented the movie's Western style escapism. And later, after the arrival of Eisenstein, Pudovkin, and Vertov, Aelita was withdrawn from circulation. However, the movie's influence is hard to overestimate. The art design for Aelita is, simply put, out of this world. Spokes radiate from the Queen's hat.
Doors open like camera apertures.
Aelita's maid wears a spiral-shaped hat that seems to radiate from her forehead and sweep around her head. Gor, the guardian of the planet's energy, dresses in plastic tubes. Sentries look like robots, with face masks and huge ball joints at their shoulders. Columns arch like rib bones. The Elders march with their hands clasped within large medallion-shaped devices that they wear on their chests.