By Jonathan Klotz | Published 40 seconds ago The launch of Star Wars was the pop culture equivalent of an atomic bomb. For decades afterwards, studios tried to recapture the magic of George Lucas’s space epic. MGM wanted its own sci-fi blockbuster, so the studio optioned the book The Water Planet and began charting a course for sci-fi glory. What they quickly realized is that sci-fi can be expensive, and the epic sci-fi was rewritten into a sci-fi comedy, giving the world The Ice Pirates in 1984, a film that needed a miracle to be made and decades to be appreciated. The Ice Pirates Embraces The Weird Of Sci-Fi The Ice Pirates stars Robert Urich as Jason, a space pirate, and his crew, which includes Anjelica Huston and Ron Perlman , who stumble across a Space Princess, rescue her, anger Space Templars, are threatened with castration, and set out to find the legendary Seventh World covered in water. Trying to understand the plot of the movie is one thing, but watching it unfold is quite another, because as weird as it sounds, nothing can prepare you for how bizarre the film gets. George Lucas and Gene Roddenberry never had the balls to show a vomiting robot, or a blinged-out robot pimp who refers to his ship as “my bad chariot.” What could have been a simple plot to move from point A to point B is constantly sidetracked by the absurd universe surrounding Jason and Princess Karina. For example, during a moment of downtime, the group sits down for a meal that’s quickly interrupted when a bug emerges from the meat, terrifying everyone. Jason and his pal Roscoe quickly kill it, explaining that the low-budget chestburster knockoff is a “space herpe.” The Ice Pirates is a very stupid movie that thankfully, is well aware it’s very stupid. Despite the reliance on absurdist comedy, The Ice Pirates does one thing exceptionally well, and that’s the ending. The final battle between the Pirates and Templars takes place inside a time dilation field, where everyone is rapidly aging, and putting a fun spin on what could have been a boring combat sequence from any generic sci-fi movie. There’s more creativity in 15 minutes of this film than in the entire runtime of Borderlands . A Low-Budget Self-Aware Miracle The production crew had to be creative to come in under budget, and $8 million wasn’t going to make much of a movie if The Water Planet was to remain a serious sci-fi epic. That’s why MGM brought in a legend of B-movies, Stewart Rafill, the man who went on to direct Mac and Me . He may not have the prestige of James Cameron or the success of Ridley Scott, but Rafill isn’t afraid to go big with small budgets. The Ice Pirates isn’t a great movie, but with Rafill’s unique style, it’s not a boring movie. The Ice Pirates was a critical disaster upon release, with every review mocking the low-budget special effects, jokes, and incoherent plot. Bringing in only $14 million at the box office, the film found success on HBO and quickly became a staple of the fledgling cable network. Today, it’s a cult classic that stands out for being in on the joke. Ridiculous setpieces and wild set designs combine with the off-the-wall antics and unpredictable plot to make The Ice Pirates the perfect antidote for modern sci-fi. Throw a rock, and you’ll find a bad movie podcast that has devoted an episode to the film and declared it to be better than they expected. In a world where Star Trek is developing new shows that have been focus tested to the point of being unrecognizable to old-school fans, and no one knows what Star Wars is supposed to be anymore, it’s refreshing to come across a wild sci-fi movie that embraces being low-budget schlock. Sci-fi comedy is hard to do right, and even The Orville eventually pivoted toward being more of a Star Trek homage than a Star Trek parody, but The Ice Pirates nails the right tone and weirdness. It’s also another 80s movie that kids saw when they were far too young, as I did, and the conveyor-belt sequence left me with lots of questions. If you stream the film today, the biggest question you’ll be left with is “Why won’t Hollywood take chances today on films that dare to be different?” The Ice Pirates is available for rent on Amazon Prime Video , Google Play Movies , YouTube , and AppleTV . Related Topics: Source: https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/ent/scifi/water-planet-failed.html