Message from Space

A bad Japanese rip-off of a good American rip-off of good Japanese movies (that were probably rip-offs). It's the circle of life.

An absolutely nonsensical Japanese space adventure film, it feels like Star Wars, The Seven Samurai and Flash Gordon in a blender. Continuous corny overacting, goofy costumes, senseless dialog and dogfights with model spaceships. A couple of the ship designs were pretty cool and most of the model work was solid, but Etsuko Shihomi is wasted in a mostly non-action role and Sonny Chiba is barely recognizable in his ludicrous space samurai Gundam suit.

A tonally inconsistent mess with mostly unlikable leads who gain unearned importance because Deus Ex Glowy Spacenuts say so. I liked some of the sets, and there's an amusingly nostalgic factor in the model work, but these are minor pluses compared to the muddled and confusing NotQuiteStarWarsian nonsense surrounding it.

Toei's response to Star Wars is confusing and boring. A mish-mash of influences, with a special effects menu reminiscent of the 1970's Godzilla films, but with an incomprehensible plot that borders on the unintentionally funny. Sadly, not bad enough to be good.

The model effects have a physicality to them that is just outstanding: when the ships flew through an asteroid field, I felt the speed, when one careened slowly toward the ground, aflame, in the climactic battle sequence, I caught myself bracing for the impact. That battle sequence is a thing to behold, all smoke and fire and ash, like Delacroix by way of Turner. Muddying up the Monomyth with Seven Samurai was an inspired choice, as it allows for some interesting political content. BEBA rules.

Bizarre Japanese sci-fi fantasy adventure movie that feels like 10 different movies rolled into one. Although the models and special effects were quite impressive, the story and the acting that go along with them don't come close to matching them in quality. The movie can be so ridiculous at times it becomes bad-funny, but for the most part it's just a slow goofy mess.

It's like watching a Japanese version of Star Wars, sponsored by Chuck-E-Cheese and meth.

It's like an alcoholic Japanese entactogen addict had the wildest trip while watching Star Wars and decided to painstakingly recreate what he thought he saw and felt after he came down from it. The result is about as murky and bizarre as one might expect.

This was going to be a trilogy just like its chief inspiration, Star Wars, but the goofy idiots blew up all the models. And I mean every last one of them.

Fukasaku's energetic yakuza-film direction and Vic Morrow's fantastic performance make this one of the best Star Wars knock-offs.

Putting aside the special effects, the cheesy style, and the '70s dubbing, this narrative is fundamentally broken. Character traits are established, and then change on a dime once the plot needs a turnaround. We introduce a new character with his own arc to the main cast two-thirds of the way thru the movie. And honestly, a lot of the time, it's just a visual mess. Plus, there are hints at weird reactionary politics. All that said, it wasn't *not* entertaining - there's some fun nonsense here.

This isn't good and it's more Buck Rogers than Star Wars. But if you understand this was actually a kid's movie you might be able to have some fun with it.

It's worth a cackle sometimes, not much else.

Boring. Slow. Version I saw was hard to hear.