Hi!
I'm Torstein from Cinema Terror.
Let's go meet the horny robot Hector, who
wants to get nasty with the beautiful Farrah
Fawcett in the 1980 sci-fi film Saturn 3.
Saturn 3 takes place on the research station
Saturn 3, of course, where the scientists
slash couple Adam and Alex have been living
in alone while trying to find an answer to
the food shortage that are currently taking
place on earth due to overpopulation.
Their world gets turned upside down when they
get a visit from the mentally unstable Captain
Benson, played by Harvey Keitel.
He arrives at their space station to setup a
robot which will replace one of them to speed
up the work.
The robot, given the name Hector, is linked
up with Benson's brain in order to function,
but he does not only get commands from Benson,
but also his emotions and instincts.
This makes the robot turn on the humans, trapping
them all alone, having to fight this dangerous,
advance robot all by themselves.
Saturn 3 can be explained as a combination
between Demon Seed and Alien.
It uses the alone in space setting from Alien
and switched the monster from being a xenomorph
into a robot that turn against its creators
and are able to have emotions like falling
in love, but not the human complexity that
makes you understand and respect why you can't
always get what you lust after.
It's a concept that is as relevant today in
2018 as it was in 1980, in fact, it might
even be more scary today when you think of
how much technology has become a part of our
daily life.
That being said, Saturn 3 never goes that
deep as perhaps Demon Seed did and it is absolutely
not able to create the atmosphere of Alien.
Instead it becomes its own thing, a film that
is enjoyable but not able to stand out among
its peers.
It's a bit dated even by its time in that
some of its choices makes it seem like a production
that belong back in the 60's.
This is shown in the way Kirk Douglas and
Farrah Fawcett handles their characters as
they are old school with elegance and class.
That's not necessarily negative though as
I did enjoy them playing off each other, even
having their age difference play a part in
the main story.
We've seen plenty of movies where the guy
is in a different age bracket than the younger
and more beautiful love interest, but its
rare that it actually becomes a part of the
films plot.
And Douglas even gets into a fight while he
is butt ass naked here, something you gotta
give credit for when you consider that he
was 64 years old while filming.
I've never really got why Fawcett was such
an icon during her heyday, but she does show
why here.
She is absolutely stunning and a joy to watch,
even if her character isn't exactly the smartest
and self reliant woman in cinema history.
The filmmakers does tease us with nudity from
her also, while not delivering it, nearly
to the point where you think they are being
dicks to the audience by teasing so many times.
Rouding out the cast, we get Harvey Keitel
as Benson.
He plays the part nearly like an android,
iconically being the least human out of the
three, even if he has lived the longest on
Planet Earth.
He was dubbed over in post-production due
to director Stanley Donen disliking his Brooklyn
accent, and the dubbing makes the character
more intriguing and robot like for me.
Keitel is fun to watch and he gets some funny
and creepy lines to work with.
The production design
is quite good and impressive, but it also
seem a bit too big for a space station that
are only inhabited by two people.
It looks like a set that was designed for
a movie with a bit more action to it, which
Saturn 3 lacks of.
It would be hard to add more action to it
though without having more people live there,
which would take away from the threesome drama
that goes on with our trio of characters.
The main problem with Saturn 3 is the lack
of understanding for why Benson does what
he does.
The threat is there as its needed for there
to be a movie, but it doesn't make all that
much sense or even feel interesting.
The robot looks like Short Circuit on steroids
and while it does have a cool look, although
a goofy looking head, it never becomes frightening
as its powers seem to be incoherent during
the running time.
Sometimes the thing can do highly advance
stuff, but then he is tricked by the silliest
stuff possible.
Saturn 3 might lack the action for the modern
audience, but for those who don't mind a toned
down sci-fi film that lets the actors take
the forefront to entertain you, then Saturn
3 is not a bad choice at all.
I highly enjoyed watching the three actors
and as such was able not let the silly parts
of the plot ruin the film for me.
Saturn 3 is a good time and I'm going to give
it a nice score of 3.5 out of 5.
Who out there has seen Saturn 3?
What did you think of it?
Any 80's sci-fi films that are forgotten that
you would like to give a shout out to?
Let me hear about it in the comment section
below, make sure you check out my other reviews
on this channel and thank you for watching.
