Director Stanley Donen’s “Saturn 3” is one part killer robot horror film, one part love triangle thriller, and one part Christian biblical nonsense. The couple Adam and Alex live in their own Garden of Eden and are tempted by their own snake in the grass that begin building a rift between then. Meanwhile they’re tormented by a sentient force, and have to battle a really boring killer robot that most likely wants to kill the men and marry Farrah Fawcett. I was never quite clear on what was going in the final fifteen minutes, to be honest.
“Saturn 3” is an unfocused and dull meshing of ideas that never add up to a coherent or riveting science fiction thriller. Alex and Adam are a couple living in a space station on a moon, and they’re greeted by an odd young man who brings aboard a robot. The robot is supposed to be some kind of new droid that can operate for mankind. And it needs to be hooked up to its operator’s membrane to work. When the owner of the robot named Benson comes aboard, he forms an almost comical immediate lust for Alex, as played by Farrah Fawcett.
Of course, since the robot named Hector can feel what his owner feels, he gains sentience and soon begins wreaking havoc. All the while the trio of stars pull in laughable and often over the top performances. Douglas is hammy and chews the scenery, while Harvey Keitel can barely pull off the role he’s given. He should be menacing and terrifying, but he instead feels inept and stilted. Director Donen rushes in to much of the drama in order to allow the monster to begin its chaos, so all we know about Alex and Adam is that they’re oddly attracted to one another.
And they’re mostly driven by their superficial lusts rather than any emotional bonds. It becomes much too easy for character Benson to drive a wedge between them, and the performances make every scene feel awkward and clumsy. The terrible dialogue matched with the forced performances make the attempts at tension and suspense feel goofy and over the top. The robotic menace Hector is a terrible foe that spends more time being outwitted than destroying environments. “Saturn 3” is a display of talent capable of miles more than they’re given with this schlocky science fiction mess. It’s a boring and tedious attempt to instill biblical symbolism at every turn and it’s one of the most inferior films Stanley Donen has ever dealt audiences.
Among the plethora of extras from Scream Factory comes an interview with voice artist Roy Dotrice, who explains having to dub Harvey Keitel’s voice. There’s an interview with special effects director Colin Chilvers who discusses the film’s more practical effects. There are ten minutes of additional scenes from the TV version of “Saturn 3,” and a deleted scene where Alex and Adam take ecstasy, which has been deemed one of the film’s most infamous moments. There’s the theatrical trailer, a TV trailer, and a still gallery. Finally, there’s the audio commentary with film expert Greg Moss who, with David Bradley, explores the finer points of “Saturn 3” along with his discussion of why he loves the film.