Review of Logan's Run (1976) by Stefan G — 30 Aug 2015

Before the advent of Star Wars, many sci-fi films were far-out and often cerebral in terms of their central concepts. They were also much slower in pace, and had a generally colder atmosphere. Sometimes this approach worked, but other times it failed.

On that note, this film is plagued by some of the more pretentious clichés of early 70's sci-fi. This film could have been a sci-fi classic, but it clearly squandered its potential with a lumbering narrative that assumes that the viewer already knows what's going on.

The film's plot is set in a dystopian future where the apparent remnants of humanity live in a domed metropolis run by a supercomputer, and nobody is allowed to live past thirty years of age. In theory, this could have made for a good premise.

If only the film bothered to explain what happened before all that came about. The film's general approach just seems odd to me. In the first half it was better, with stunning futuristic visuals and cool electronic soundtrack, but in the second half, all of a sudden the film's tone shifts to that of a more typical adventure film.

The film spends two hours lumbering about without ever explaining what even motivates the protagonist to go on his quest. As for the characters, the performances don't do much for me at all. They just seem really silly, but then again, the whole movie turns into a silly, farcical sci-fi flick.

It may have interesting ideas, but it doesn't handle them properly. Of course, it's still an interesting film, and it's not totally bad, though there are more than a few things that desperately needed to be cleared up if the producers wanted us to take the film's ideas seriously.