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Invaders from Space

Invaders from Space (1965) Movie Poster
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Japan / USA  •    •  78m  •    •  Directed by: Koreyoshi Akasaka, Teruo Ishii, Akira Mitsuwa.  •  Starring: Ken Utsui, Minako Yamada, Junko Ikeuchi, Sachihiro Ohsawa, Shôji Nakayama, Hiroshi Hayashi, Minoru Takada, Utako Mitsuya, Chisako Hara, Reiko Seto, Akira Tamura, Tomohiko Ôtani, Fumiko Miyata.  •  Music by: Michiaki Watanabe.
    A bunch of pernicious salamander men from the planet Kulimon in the Moffit Galaxy plan on taking over Earth by unleashing a lethal plague on mankind. It's up to valiant superhero Starman from the Emerald Planet to save the human race before it's too late.

Review:

Image from: Invaders from Space (1965)
Image from: Invaders from Space (1965)
Image from: Invaders from Space (1965)
Image from: Invaders from Space (1965)
Image from: Invaders from Space (1965)
Image from: Invaders from Space (1965)
Image from: Invaders from Space (1965)
Image from: Invaders from Space (1965)
Image from: Invaders from Space (1965)
Image from: Invaders from Space (1965)
Image from: Invaders from Space (1965)
Image from: Invaders from Space (1965)
Image from: Invaders from Space (1965)
Image from: Invaders from Space (1965)
Image from: Invaders from Space (1965)
Image from: Invaders from Space (1965)
Hard to believe, perhaps, but before director Teruo Ishii turned to the sleaze and violence of pinku cinema he was director of children's TV series Sûpâ jaiantsu (Super Giant) in which Ken Utsui played Starman, a humanoid alien with incredible powers (well, he can fly with the help of a very visible harness) who is sworn to protect the human race from danger. In Invaders From Space, a feature cobbled together for the US market from several episodes of the series, Starman battles the evil salamander men of Kulimon (sp?) who release a deadly disease in Japan as part of their evil plan for world domination.

The film opens on a planet 2 billion miles away where a council of incredibly daft looking aliens elect to send Starman to Earth; if the rest of the film was this unintentionally funny, I was in for a grand time. Sadly, despite the equally amusing introduction of the first salamander man, Invaders from Space quickly descended into tedium, a disjointed, episodic adventure with extremely repetitious fight scenes between Starman and his scaly foes, most of which look more like elaborate dance routines than desperate battles to the death.

And talking of dance, let's not forget the unnecessary avant-garde number in a theatre where the salamanders are posing as stage performers. Or the bit where several supposedly cute Japanese kids find themselves threatened in the woods by the athletic aliens busting their moves. I guess if modern dance is your thing, there's a remote chance that you might find this interesting, but I found myself seriously struggling to stay awake.


Review by BA_Harrison from the Internet Movie Database.