This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Columbia takes the Jules Verne classic and brings it to the big screen for the second time in a cliffhanging story that now includes aliens thrown into the American Civil War period tale. As 1950's Columbia serials go this is pretty good. The story, which in some ways is the closet to the novel isn't bad, dealing with trying to survive on the island as well as dealing with pirates, a mad man and the aliens, but it breaks down because by the end there are simply too many plot lines running through the story and there are too many characters to keep track of. It is enjoyable but at the same time to begins to circle back on itself about half way into the serial, which makes trying to watch this in a single sitting (or two) difficult. Worth a look, but keep it broken up over several nights.

In the Civil War, POW Capt. Cyrus Harding escapes from his Confederate captors in an observation balloon, with sailor Pencroft, his nephew Bert, writer Gideon, and soldier Neb. A hurricane blows the balloon off course to an uncharted island in the pacific. Our heroes soon encounter the natives (who worship the island's volcano), Rulu (a woman from Mercury trying to extract an element in order to conquer the Earth), Ayrton (a wild man exiled on the island), and Capt. Shard (a mercenary pirate). A mystery man, who possesses great scientific powers, also makes his presence known to the group of people, but whose side is he on? For 15 chapters, our quintet of heroes must battle all the elements and peoples while trying to figure a way off the island and back to civilization. It's not a bad serial, but nothing great either. There is a lot of action (while it does seem corny and repetitive at times) and okay cliffhangers. My biggest complaint with the serial (keep in mind I never read the Verne novel) is that it does not seem that the story is taking place in the 1860's and the ray guns, UFO's, and (then) contemporary situations, seem to be taken for granted as existing. Rating, based on serials, 5.