For once the epithet “fantastic” is no exaggeration, whereas “incredible” would be a misnomer. The ingenious premise, clever plot and huge sets make believers of us from the very start, ignoring all the absurdities and inconsistencies.

The miniaturized crew leaves enough debris behind to make the patient’s head explode, when it returns to normal size (unless white corpuscles have the magical power to annihilate matter). Besides, what is really reduced in size – the atoms?

If so, how can the small crew breathe the normal-sized oxygen molecules, which they retrieve from the lungs? The list of natural laws broken would be long indeed, even on the organic level, the physiology of Man being adapted to his size.

Shouldn’t they be slapped silly by Brownian motion, the constant bombardment of molecules? How do they even see?

Has the wavelength of visible light been reduced as well? Being so small that we would be unable to see them in a light-microscope, they shouldn’t be able too see each other either – or anything else for that matter.

Of course, we really wouldn’t have to worry about how to kill the giant insects threatening mankind in the creature features of the fifties, as they would never be able to survive in the first place. But with the kind of edutainment that this movie professes to be, you would be inclined to be a bit more critical – as in the case of instant radio communication between the Earth and the moon in “realistic” movies about space exploration (given the speed of light, there should of course be a two-second delay between question and answer).

And that is exactly my point: watching FANTASTIC VOYAGE, you thoroughly enjoy your rollercoaster ride through this anatomical theme park. You may smile, but you never snicker – a power to suspend disbelief, which the cinema has now regrettably lost.