Nathan Juran
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Silly but somehow touchingly sincere, this defiant throwback mixes up old 1940s Saturday-afternoon serials, Indiana Jones flicks, Disney cartoons and Ray Harryhausen adventures such as The 7th Voyage of Sinbad .
And he has to, because the pair’s script is rather laughable, a melodramatic hodgepodge of ideas liberally borrowing from influences as varied The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Star Wars , Flash Gordon , Raiders of the Lost Ark , Cleopatra and any number of Ray Harryhausen event spectacles ranging from 1958’s The 7th Voyage of Sinbad , to 1963’s Jason and the Argonauts , to 1981’s Clash of the Titans .
The movie is a mix of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), a little bit of Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959), part The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) with just a touch of The African Queen (1951)—you know, without all the problematic stuff…yeesh.
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Directed by Denis Villeneuve
influenced by Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958)
“Blade Runner 2049” borrows from many genre-movie sources, and in one truly nutty moment, one of them is “Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.”
And that's because director Ridley Scott and screenwriters Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett brilliantly brought together genres (sci-fi and horror), re-imagined combining elements of "20 Million Miles to Earth" and "It!
Kong: Skull Island (2017)
Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts
influenced by The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)
Plot
The man-eating sequences dwarf those from any past film, including those created by the legendary Ray Harryhausen in "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" (1958), where the one-eyed giant Polyphemus eats several of Sinbad's sailors --- terrifying at the time.
David: As a young moviegoer, I remember being amazed and terrified while watching "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" (1958) mainly because of the scary cyclops that picked up men and ate them.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010)
Directed by Mike Newell
influenced by The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)
Themes
The stalwarts of this type of “Arabian Nights” film are the 1924 and 1940 versions of “Thief of Bagdad,” “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad” (1958), “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” (1944), “Sinbad the Sailor” (1947) and “Aladdin” (1992).
The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026)
Directed by Jon Favreau
influenced by The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)
Visuals
…there were times when I felt like I was watching one of those Ray Harryhausen movies my parents showed me as a kid, like the Sinbad movies or 1981’s Clash of the Titans.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Directed by Gore Verbinski
influenced by The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)
Visuals
And director Gore Verbinski, who raised a few chill bumps with "The Ring," scares up the ghost of the great Ray Harryhausen ("The 7th Voyage of Sinbad") in the action scenes, which mix great effects with wonderfully choreographed swordplay.
Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
Directed by Don Chaffey
influenced by The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)
Back to my opening claim, then: most of Ray Harryhausen's films aren't "good", by any objective rules we might have - lucky, then, that the analysis of art is subjective - and even if we were to throw out the question of absolute quality, Jason and the Argonauts still isn't nearly his "best" film - there's more emotional depth in Mighty Joe Young, a far more coherent narrative in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad , stronger characters and more sustained world-building in Mysterious Island , Raquel Welch's awe-inspiring cleavage in One Million Years B.C.
Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)
Directed by Travis Knight
influenced by 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957), The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)
Visuals
Influenced by the legendary Ray Harryhausen ("The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" was a childhood favorite of mine), animators for "Kubo and the Two Strings" averaged 3.31 seconds per week of finished footage.
Whether it was the Cyclops and dragon in "The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad," the Allosaurus in "The Valley of the Gwangi" (and other such critters in "One Million Years B.C." -- not to mention Raquel Welch), the title character in "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" or the alien monster in "20 Million Miles to Earth," I couldn't get enough of such creations.
Pacific Rim (2013)
Directed by Guillermo del Toro
influenced by 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957)
Plot
Having just seen this film, a slightly more accurate description would be "20 Million Miles to Earth" (the 1950s Ray Harryhausen monster from Venus flick) meets "Real Steel" (the Hugh Jackman boxing robots movie) by way of most any Japanese monster movie ("Godzilla," "Mothra," etc.) from decades ago.