The preposterous images in this film made it the ultimate snooze-a-thon. The silly sets and the stiff acting are laughable. I think it's valid to evaluate a film based on the accomplishments of others. Even some of the very weak science fiction films of this time are so much better than this. The surface of the moon is beyond cheap. Then there are the animals: a cute cocker spaniel, some cats, and some clueless monkeys. We also have a Jewish astronaut who resents being on the same voyage as a German. Did any of these people check the manifest before deciding to go to the moon. Of course, worst of all, is the trite, vapid plot, with it's prescription morality and speech making. Save an hour out of your precious life and skip this.

Our ancient announcer Francis Bushman in the "First Worldwide Broadcast" promises us "world shattering history". This film does document one great historic fact- the launching of the first lawn furniture into space. The lawn furniture wasn't enhanced, spray painted or otherwise disguised as space equipment- it was just launched "as-is" as purchased at the local Sears store in 1960. True history was thus made in the annals of space exploration.We also know that the same flight launched the first hopeless alcoholic into space- Tom Conway. Truly historic wasn't it? The first dog- a shy flop eared cocker spaniel presumably from the same back yard as the lawn furniture- was also launched on this flight.These brave astronauts flew 240,000 miles to be threatened by a small pit of sand. Fantastic! And a shower without water! A film without budget! Its historic!

OK, let's get the obvious out of the way. The writers had no clue about scientific principles, especially space science. Even in 1960, we already knew about the lifeless moon (it had been years since we abandoned the notion of little green men from Mars).But the social implications were fascinating to me. The international crew of the ship was quite impressive, especially in the midst of the cold war.The inclusion of women, Asians, and even an African American man that avoided stereotyping was admirable. Talking about racism, the issues of Israel as a country, and other issues that are just as relevant today was outstanding.So as a movie, lousy, but the message, outstanding!

The problem with judging science on the basis of MST riffs is that MST writers get science wrong every bit as often as the movie makers. The science in this film is accurate and well considered. To wit, 1) The "steam" is outgassing (which somehow people believe in the movie Deep Impact but not in this film, because MST told them to laugh at it, and they aren't thinking for themselves, alas.) In 1960, it was assumed that there would be constant, dangerous lunar outgassing. As it ends up, the outgassing probably was over by 3.5 billion years ago, but in 1960, we knew only a little bit about the phenomenon.2) The dust pits are of regolith, which NASA was very concerned about when choosing Apollo landing sites. Look it up.3) The moon has an atmosphere. Look it up.4) Walking "slow and stupid" under lesser gravity was also accurate, and since no one had been on the moon in 1960, they guessed how that would look, and they guessed pretty well. It's easy to laugh at this in retrospect, but I never saw even an attempt to get this right in other moon films of the era.and so on. The movie makers got this all right, which for the date of the film in startling and admirable. A lot of contemporary s-f films to this one were ridiculous in comparison. (Yes, they had the typical and inaccurate meteor shower scene, but you can't have everything.) A lot of current s-f movies have much worse science. Much! It is also admirable to see a diverse cast, including, gasp, women. NASA took over twenty years to catch up with the imagination of these filmmakers, and Kubrick didn't get that right in 2001, either, filmed ten years later, so kudos to the filmmakers for that.The movie is a little slow, admittedly. But there is a plot, a heroic sacrifice, and, my favorite part, the earth people don't win. They scurry home barely alive, their asses kicked by aliens. That seems more realistic than all the earth-wins s-f films that posit aliens with profoundly advanced technologies who bother to visit other planets and then can't figure out how to beat up an inferior species with gumption, rain, the magical ability to pilot alien craft, or table salt.Thus, to summarize, the science in this science fiction film is far better than average, even comparing it to today's films. There is a plot, but it's a little bit slow. And the acting is not that wonderful.