Saturn 3 suffers from an identity crisis. To look at the poster you would think it's about a killer robot in outer space. True. But, if you look closely at the poster you'll see that Stanley Donen directed this...that's right, Stanley 'Singin in the Rain, Charade, Two For the Road' Donen. Intriguing. When we first start the film up we get a shot of the underbelly of a large spacecraft emerging from the top of screen and seeming to be infinitely long a la Star Wars. We then get to see a man's body get shattered into a million pieces by Harvey Keitel. Cool. Then we see Kirk Douglas and Farrah Fawcett all lovey-dovey with Keitel more than a little jealous. Eh. Keitel then builds a robot that is able to relate his thoughts. Cool? No, no it's not.<br /><br />Saturn 3 is part thriller, part bizarre love triangle, part sci-fi but never commits to any part of itself or any genre to be of any interest. The sexual elements may have been golden on paper but they don't amount to anything here; there isn't enough scary moments/gore to be entertaining to horror fans, and the science fiction elements are often so stupid (how did Keitel's ship fly through Saturn's rings and not get smashed to bits?) that it's a tough one to sit through.<br /><br />Thankfully though, it is quite silly at times with some corny dialogue and overacting by Douglas, not to mention some awful dubbing over Keitel's voice. Why does Keitel kill the man and come to the planet?Why has Fawcett never seen earth? Why does Keitel want to build the robot in the first place if all he really wants is Fawcett? These questions are never answered.<br /><br />Lastly, back to Donen. Why him? The original director had to bail out because of illness but they couldn't find a young director to spit this project out? Donen is a fine director and should have done more great projects - why did he feel he needed to dumb himself down for this? He couldn't have thought the script was any good, could he? Only virtues: The robot is kind of neat, and the set design isn't bad.<br /><br />*1/2 out of ****