Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. Film Review

When many people think of Doctor Who they usually just think of the TV show and rightfully so as that's what this franchise is known for being. Yet they very rarely if ever no about or even talk about any of the two sixties feature length theatrically released films as while those films are non canon to the show they are still films are based off of the show even tho there quite literally just adaptations of serials and nothing more then that well I thought that i'd take a look at the second one of these films as the first one is the more well known of the two and so then join me as I review the film that does feature the debut appearance of an iconic Doctor Who actor with the film in question being called simply just "Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D." enjoy.

The plot of this film is when Dr. Who , his granddaughter Susan , his niece Louise and a policeman called Tom travel to the year 2150 they have to stop the daleks from destroying the world. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought /. felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad with the films plot being nothing more then a carbon copy of the serial that it's meant to be adapting which is fair enough as the first film also did that but at the same time tho as the film does add nothing new to the plot it does make you wonder why the makers of this film thought that it was a wise to take this approach again with the film in regards to it's plot as while the original serial "The Dalek Invasion Of Earth" did have a really good plot as does this film the serial was telling that story for the first time and therefor had to do alot of heavy lifting whereas here in this film just all there doing is copying the original storyline beat for beat with there being no changes made to the story which makes it feel less like an adaptation and more like a straight forward remake which if true is something that would be pointless to do as the original story is damned near perfect to begin with with this films version of the story being alot more fun and more kid friendly and lacking any of the substance that the original had but credit where it is due this is the kind of story that would and in this case does work as the plot for a Doctor Who feature film with the plot of this film being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this film is Peter Cushing as Dr. Who , Bernard Cribbins as Tom Campbell and Roberta Tovey as Susan. Also starring in this film is Jill Curzon as Louise , Ray Brooks as David , Andrew Keir as Wyler , Roger Avon as Wells , Geoffrey Cheshire as A Roboman , Keith Marsh as Conway , Philip Madoc as Brockley , Steve Peters as Lead Roboman , Eddie Powell as Thompson , Godfrey Quigley as Dortmun , Sheila Steafel as Young Woman , Eileen Way as Old Woman , Kenneth Watson as Craddock , John Wreford as A Robber , David Graham as the voice of the Daleks and Peter Hawkins as the voice of the Daleks.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. With this both not really being and at the same time also being really surprising as while we know that actors like Peter Cushing , Bernard Cribbins and to a much more lesser extent Roberta Tovey can act as they've proven that in other films what we don't know is if alot of the films other actors can act which is something that does give this film a rather mixed bag when it comes to it's quality of acting as both David Graham add Peter Hawkins as really good as the voices of the Daleks Kenneth Watson just looks bored half the time and confused about what to do the other half of the time with the same thing even being true for Philip Madoc as well with it being made clear as day that this films director Gordon Flemyng knew how to talk to his main actors as that's where the films acting becomes really good but when it comes to the films side characters he just didn't really bother to give them any real direction with them feeling lost and unsure of themselves whilst the films more well known actors knew full well what he wanted and how to give him what he wanted with the acting that's in this film not really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so bad as it gives none of this films actors absolutely nothing to work with interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does harm the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.

Look to be blunt no one was expecting this film to have any good are well written characters in it and to this extent the film does work. As none of the films characters even those that are carried over from the main show aren't that well written in the first place with a good example of this being Dr. Who himself as due to Peter Cushing falling ill during the production of the film alot of his scenes had to be re-written to not include him hence why he's not in the film all that much with this having the adverse effect of the character of Dr. Who not being able to show us why we should care about him and what it is that makes him stand out from all of the characters in the film as if you just saw this film and didn't see the previous one then you wouldn't know that this version of the character is meant to be a human who is literally named Dr. Who with another good example of this being the character of Louise who adds exactly nothing to the film with it being made clear as day that the character was only added to the film so that the makers of the film can say that they have a pretty female in the main cast and that's it as she does nothing in the film which makes her inclusion in the film be pointless as you could remove her character completely and nothing would change in regards to the films plot and heck we don't even get to find out anything about her character say what you will about Barbera from the previous film but we at least got to find out some things about her character and she at least added things to the plot of that film but in all fairness tho the character of Susan was just as delightful as she was in the previous film with her even having scenes where she gets to act like a kid which was fun to see. 

As alot of you will know this film is of course adapted from the second series serial "The Dalek Invasion Of Earth" whereas the first film which adapted the first dalek story pretty faithfully. This film on the other hand does make some changes like the fact that for obvious reason David and Susan aren't a couple by the end of the film and the fact that there's a new companion type of character called Tm Campbell which does mean that the film does have to fit in a scene at the start of the film that sets up his character and how he meets Dr. Who , Susan and Louise and because of the fact that Peter Cushing was ill we do get a few more scenes with Tom who is basically playing the role that Ian had in the original serial only now it's being played more for laughs which given that the makers of this film already made Ian the comedic relief of the first film is something that does make some form of sense with his most funniest scene being where he has to pretend to be a Roboman and ends up falling asleep and heck it could be argued that due to the fact that this film is trying to reach a much more larger audience then what the show was trying to reach at that time that that the makers of this film did tone down the original serial as the original story was alot more darker and was alot more action packed that is just something that isn't in this films version of the story and while alot of die hard Doctor Who fans will hate that as it does ruin what is a really good story in it's own right given the fact that this film isn't meant to be canon to the show it does make sense for this film to be alot more lighter in tone then what the original story was and whilst the film is still action packed it's oddly enough not as action packed as the original serial was and nor is it as creepy either as the scene with the dalek coming out of the water just doesn't have the same impact as it did back in the original story.

There's no way about it that this film is quite easily the worst of the two dalek films and yet at the same time tho this is the one that had the bigger budget. Yet you can't really tell as the first film did try to hide it's limitations and even the fact that they the TARDIS interior be nothing but switches and wires is still something that adds to the charm of that film and it adds to the fact that this films version of Dr. Who and Susan are human beings and not aliens and yet in this film the TARDIS interior does look like that it could have come right from the show which is something that would be fine if the characters were meant to be aliens but there not there meant to human and therefor it should have had a more man made look to it as that is something that would have hit that point home perfectly and while this film did make great use of more location filming something which does add to the film as it makes the films plot and story feel all the more bigger and grander in scale there's something to the more studio based shoot of the previous film that makes that film feel more better , tighter and claustrophobic which given the plot of that film is something that does work all the more better as it makes the film be all the more creepier because of it and while yes there are alot of problems to be found with that first film as well that film was at the very least trying to be a thrilling film where as here the film plays out more like an action comedy as the film does have alot more characters stopping to either make a joke or pull a funny face which at times does undercut any tension that the film is trying to build up with this not really being helped by the fact that all of the main characters are separated for a large portion of the film and while this was also true for the serial you still want to see your main heroes together alot more as that's when they get to shone the best in this film. 

The Daleks main plan in this film is to destroy the earths core and replace it with something that would allow them to effectively pilot the earth back to there home planet of Skaro. This is something that does feel like something that this films version of the daleks would do as there not going to try and blow it up as that would be a bit much for a cinema going audience therefor the makers of this film did have to go with the next best thing which is what there plan is in this film yet at the same time tho the daleks wouldn't want to pilot the earth and do nothing with it as they would want to conquer it or failing that blow it up as they see themselves as perfect race of beings and everyone that's different from them in even the slightest way possible is someone that's to be killed and it could be argued that the same thing is true for there planet as well or if not it could be argued that there end goal all along was to pilot the earth back to there home so that they could all live on earth due to the damage that they've done to Skaro which is something that would make sense as it would then give them another planet to destroy and ruin like there did to there own planet and yet at the same time tho it the fact that they don't have that big of a plan does feel odd given that this is a feature length film where you do expect villains to have a truly epic scheme as while them wanting to pilot earth back to Skaro is perfect for the TV show versions of the characters for the film version you do want to see something be all the more epic like maybe they want to destroy the earths core and in the process blow up the planet as well as that is something that is perfect for the daleks to do and it would be epic enough of a plan for them to have in this film as well.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and twenty minuets and forty five seconds. Which is a solid enough running time for this film to have as the film does still have to set up another main character and set up why he should trust Dr. Who and the other way round as well with the film having the right amount of plot there to cover that amount of running time in the first place and yet the film doesn't take the time to fully develop it's plot as the film is more focused on giving Bernard Cribbins more funny things to say and do then it is in giving us a more well thought out plot with that being something that could have helped make the film be all the more better then what it already is in the first and heck the film doesn't even take the time to give any of it's characters any kind of character development with us not really getting to see why Dr. Who trusts Tom in the first place as while you could argue that Tom saving Susan near the start of the film is the reason why Dr. Who trusts him we don't get to see any of that come into the play in the film as the two characters barely have any screen time together and the screen time that they do share together there always with Susan and Louise and heck Louise is the character that does suffer the most from the lack of character development as unlike Barbera who was a character from the show Louise isn't and therefor she is the character that should have gotten the most character development as that is something that would have made her be a somewhat memorable character and yet the makers of the film thought that it was better to leave her a blank slate when it would have helped the film out if she got something literally anything to do and some kind of character development as well but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.

So now then as this is an action film that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. With it being made crystal clear that the makers of this film but alot more thought and effort into this film then they did anything else as it's during the films action that the film gets to be alot more entertaing and fun ton watch with the film making the best use of it's bigger budget by showing alot of daleks on screen at the same time and all of whom take part in alot of the films action which is something that does show you where the money in this film went to go towards in the first place with the best action scene in the whole entire film being the attack on the dalek ship at the start of the of the film as we get to see tens of resistance fighters taking on the daleks at the same time all the while Dr. Who and Tom and trying to get off of the dalek spaceship all the while there are explosions going off in every possible direction and while the attack on the mine does also make for a really good action scene in it's own right the daleks in that scene don't really get to do all that much something which us sadly true not only for this film but for the first film as well and yet this film does have them do whatever it is that they can do to crate some really good action something which does happen alot of the time during this film as this film really does have some really good action scenes in it in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Overall whilst the first Doctor Who dalek film is easily the better of the two films this one is still really fun to watch as well with this film being the kind of film that is perfect to watch on either a lazy Sunday as just background noise or on a bank holiday as it's just that fun and dumb to watch in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 5.5 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very film well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Amazon . Co . Uk , Tardis . Wiki , Wikipedia and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images really from this very film being the really great Google Images this is really because of the fact that really all of the images that I really indeed got and really used from Google Images are all really high quality really with all of the images that really are all and of course really currently up and on the really great and the really solid Google Images really are all being really fairly high in quality and as well as them all really being fairly high in definition.