Sure Star Wars (a movie I have seen at least fifty times) beats all the others in special effects, but this film has every thing else!It has horror(non-graphical), romance, robots, witty repartee, intelligence, (surprisingly good) special effects, and drama.I saw this film a couple of years ago in a revival with a newly struck print, and I was amazed at how well it held up today. I thought the old 40's style electronics would look hokey, but they somehow looked futuristic and moderne.Ann Francis in here (mostly) short skirts and bare feet with a girlish innocence that is hard to beat still gets a rise out of me.The Krell monster appearing in the ray beams still scares the bejebees out of me.Of course we all know that the "Great Bird of the Galaxy" probably modeled much of "Star Trek" from this movie.No one has yet to beat Robby, the Robot, in terms of personality(sorry, R2D2 and C3PO).This movie, overall, is the standard that all other Science Fiction films will have to measure up to!Honorable mention for the haunting electronic score which kept us all on pins and needles.