Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Lack of good storyline.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Ah, just what I love, a '50s B-movie. This low budget, shuddery sci-fi shocker uses much the same premise as THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN would twenty years later, but obviously without the gore. The plot is pretty minimal, and with most '50s films, the main thrust concentrates on pseudo scientific babble about why what has happened has happened. Although the film is obviously dated because of this, it's kind of fun too, as we listen to the gobbledegook about 'cosmic dust' and stuff like that. Very funny indeed.The cast is nothing to write home about, but the dialogue can be hilarious and frequently is, because it has dated so badly. The man of the title is an excitable chap who speaks like one of the teens from I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF all grown up, talking about "dope" and other silly things. The rest of the cast are all pretty stiff and stilted in their delivery of their clichéd lines, but there's no need to worry about that, it's just typical for a film like this.The special effects aren't bad. The space travel looks quite poor in these post-STAR WARS days, but at least it has some imagination put into it and has that odd quality of looking fake and unrealistic yet looking interesting, magical even, in a way that CGI animation can't create. I can't explain it very well. The makeup for the monster is surprisingly simple and effective, he just looks like he's been covered in some molten rock or something which has then settled. I like the way you can see one of his eyes too.While FIRST MAN INTO SPACE may not be original, or scary, it remains a solid piece of entertainment from a much different time. The scenes of the rampaging monster and weird space travel deserve classic status, these types of things WERE cinema in the '50s. Not brilliant, but okay anyway.

A not too exceptional fifties science fiction film involves an impulsive astronaut who can't follow orders. The up side is that it has allowed the program to go ahead by leaps and bounds; the down side is that he is out of control. On a dangerous mission, he breaks through the earth's atmosphere and finds himself in orbit. While there, he passes through some space dust which coats his ship and him. The ship comes down, an automatic parachute breaking the fall (sort of hard to swallow) and when it is found, Dan is gone. We finally get to see him. He is in a monster suit that is impenetrable (actually it's his skin). He also has a lust for as many pint of bloods as he can get his hands on. He goes on a killing rampage. Hs brother, who warned him about his lack of coach-ability (spoilsport), is trying to save him while other work to do him in. He ransacks a blood bank and siphons several innocent people. The movie shots of space are better done than most, but the acting is stiff and uninspiring, with dull sets and little real action.

First Man Into Space is set in Albuquerque where the US Navy are trying to send the first man into space, that man being pilot Dan Prescott (Bill Edwards). Dan pushes things too far & disobeys orders going higher than he should, while in space his spaceship is engulfed by a mysterious cloud of meteorite particles which attach themselves to the ship & Dan inside. Crashing back down to Earth in Mexico Dan has undergone a hideous transformation into a space crud encrusted monster who needs to feed on blood to survive, it's up to Dan's brother Commander Charles Prescott (Marshall Thompson) to hunt Dan down & try to help him...This English production was directed by Robert Day & feels like an attempt to cash in on the success of Hammer studios The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) in which an astronaut is sent into space comes back turned into some sort of alien monster, personally I think First Man Into Space is a little slow going & not as good as Hammer's effort. The script by John Croydon & Charles F. Vetter for some reason is set in America even though the film was financed & made in England, disappointingly even at a scant 75 minutes in length First Man Into Space felt really padded & slow moving. The first 30 odd minutes are totally forgettable with the initial exploration into space which goes alright & it's the second time Dan goes into space that he gets turned into a monster where I feel it should have been the first, I mean the makers could have hit the ground running with the monster turning up within the first 10 minutes but for some reason they padded the story out. I wouldn't call it a bad film, there's a few minutes of decent monster action & it's competent throughout but I will probably have completely forgotten about it by the end of the week.Don't be fooled by the DVD box artwork, the monster feels like a secondary sub plot for the majority of the film before it turns up at the end. The monster itself is quite good with it's deformed space mud encrusted face. There's a bit of blood but nothing too graphic. The special effects aren't too bad either, even though the spaceship looks like an ordinary US Navy jet plane the model work is alright as are the scenes set in outer space.Technically the film is OK, filmed in black and white the cinematography is satisfactory & help make the very English locations look American. There's plenty of stock footage as well just to pad things out even more. The cast are alright, look out for an appearance by Roger Delgado who would later go on to star in several Doctor Who stories from the 70's as the Master.First Man Into Space is a passable way to spend 75 minutes even though it still seems slow & padded. The monster is decent as are the effects but when all said & done it's nothing special. Although not credited as such AIP remade this in the 70's as the rather good The Incredible Melting Man (1977) which is much, much better & a lot gorier.

Cocky astronaut goes into space and disobeys direct orders from his brother, turns into a one-eyed standing pile of glop, and tears the necks of cows and humans for their blood. Premise of film is totally ridiculous, but everyone involved seems so earnest. That doesn't necessarily(and particularly in this case) mean they are good. The film is very cheaply made with some of the most improbable space flight footage ever shot. Marshall Thompson(from It! The Terror Beyond Space) plays the monster's overbearing, hard-working, tougher than nails brother who frequently throws out one cliche after another. Listening to him call his superior 'Skipper' had me laughing from the get go(okay, thought I would use some well-worn cliches). Thompson is the best the film has to offer in terms of acting. He is stoically adequate at best. Marla Landi is the monster's Italian love interest and looks at least effective in some Capri slacks. The scientific mumbo jumbo churned out is spectacularly immense, with scientific sounding names and theories bombarding the viewer repeatedly. Certainly not a good film(nor anywhere near it), the film does have a unique charm(albeit not over-powering)and does manage to keep the viewer awake throughout the 78 minutes of running time. And some of the scientific premises put forth have some interesting possibilities as well. Do watch out, though, for the pervasive corny dialogue. It gets pretty thick folks!