Product Description

Scientists at a "Top Secret" atomic research laboratory are taken over by strange fantastic control devices launched from an orbiting space ship inhabited by a hostile super-intelligence from beyond the stars. Simultaneously, a gigantic flying saucer crashes in the Gulf of Mexico and Kronos, a giant metallic monolith monster, emerges. Unstoppable, it slashes across the countryside, draining the earth of all it's electrical energy and beaming it into space. Kronos, a weapon so perfect in design it absorbs a direct hit by a Hydrogen bomb and becomes that much more powerful! Atomic age excitement! Atomic age thrills! All in out-of-this-world "Regalscope" format for the first time on DVD.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4177 in DVD
• Brand: Image Entertainment
• Released on: 2000-08-22
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Black & White, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 78 minutes

Amazon.com
Astronomer and all-around scientific hero Jeff Morrow (he of the stone face, Cro-Magnon brow, and heavy voice of dire intonation) discovers a new celestial body that suddenly changes course and slams into the Pacific Ocean off the Mexican coast. Meanwhile a mysterious white light takes over the body of lab director John Emery, who becomes the eyes and ears of the UFO when it emerges days later as a skyscraper-sized robot. Morrow and his crew--including his beauty-with-brains girlfriend, Barbara Lawrence; wisecracking sidekick, George O'Hanlan; and computer, SUSIE, which whirs and blinks but offers little real help--leap to the rescue, but not before the Mexican air force takes on the giant in a scene reminiscent of King Kong. Director Kurt Neumann, best known for the original The Fly, gives this low-budget sci-fi thriller an impressive scope, sending the striking, austerely designed giant robot (a walking battery with piledriver legs) marching across a B&W widescreen frame like a relentless tank and punctuating the drama with an impressively chilling A-bomb blast. Though hardly a classic, this is one of the more interesting alien invasion movies of the paranoid 1950s. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Not A Classic, But A Decent Effort
The creators of this movie deserve credit for having tried someone a little different in the alien menace line, a genuine mechancial monster which actually has a rational purpose in mind (i.e. the harvesting of energy for an alien world which has already exhausted its natural resources--and note the ahead of its time warning that we might someday be in the same predicament.)

Considering the limited budget they had available, they did a decent job. I think the opening credits are downright elegant in their clean simplicity and Kronos itself is a beautiful Art Deco menace.

Of course, the science is ridiculous. Power planets CREATE power, they don't contain power. Getting energy by sucking it from a power plant is like getting shoes by sucking them from a cobbler!

Also, I still wonder, since the walking pistons on Kronos only go up and down, how did it get any forward motion? Wouldn't it have just eventually drilled itself a nice hole in the ground and disappeared from view?

One bit of trivia. In the role of the handsome scientist's funny sidekick is George O'Hanlon, later the voice of the cartoon's George Jetson, playing one of his few live action roles. Every time you hear him talking about the danger Kronos poses to mankind in that distinctive voice, you expect him to suddenly shout out, "Jane, stop this crazy thing!"

The First Monster of the INDUSTRIAL age!!!
What a great monster! I always loved watching "Kronos" as a kid....who couldn't love this massive metal giant rectangle stampeding across the country using it's piston shooting legs?!?!? And now the new DVD release finally gives us the film in it's original widescreen (scope!) ratio....WOW!!! I remember the full-frame version chopped off newspaper headlines and other action terribly. This new transfer looks great. Ya, the movie suffers a little bit from talky moments, but it's still campy fun and whenever Kronos is on screen...it's Fantastic! Industrial Mayhem!!!! Kronos will suck you dry!

KRONOS - Should be a 50's Sci-Fi Classic!
I just finished watching "KRONOS: Ravager of Planets" and it was excellent! Starring Jeff Morrow of "This Island Earth" fame and written by Irvin Block (Forbidden Planet), KRONOS has above-average effects for it's genre and the story is very good. The giant alien machine/robot from outer space, known only as "KRONOS", is a fresh idea thrown into the mix of 50's classic invaders-from-space type films. If you enjoy collecting classic b&w 50's Sci-Fi, then KRONOS is an excellent addition to your DVD library. I only wish the DVD special features contained more. The Theatrical Trailer, Scene Selection and Feature Movie are the only options on the DVD. Anyway, it's still an enjoyable and fun classic Sci-Fi flick, which no collector should be without!