Kent Reviews “Evil Brain from Outer Space”

The fourth, and final, installment of the Starman series finds Starman fighting an alien race bent on destroying the earth with mutants, a witch, germ warfare, nuclear weapons, minions dressed in Batman-like outfits, and a leader who is a brain!

Whew! That was a lot!

And this movie certainly does do a lot as well with the different blend of villains thrown at Starman. Evil Brain from Outer Space just might be the oddest Starman, yet one, if not the most, exciting entry.

But does this excitement make it a good, fun movie?

Synopsis:

Balazar comes from the planet Zemar. As a former leader on the planet, Balazar was assassinated yet his brain is preserved and, strangely, found it’s way to earth with fellow Zemarians who plan on destroying the earth with, you guessed it, nuclear weapons.

Not liking the fact that nuclear radiation could make its way to the Emerald Planet, the High Council sends Starman to battle the Zemarians.

Balazar’s brain is kept in a case when the police run after a man carrying it. Once captured, the man accidentally drops the case containing Balazar’s brain into a stream. The man goes nuts telling the police that if the brain isn’t destroyed that the earth itself will then be destroyed. But the man is released when it’s discovered that he wasn’t part of a separate gang that had robbed a bank earlier that evening.

The man goes looking for the case, but is discovered by the Zemarians and beaten until Starman jumps in and saves him, driving the Zemarians off. Starman begins to find out that not only are the Zemarians looking to use nuclear weapons, but they also plan on using powerful mutants that they create and germs that will slowly kill off the human race.

Starman eventually battles a giant bat-looking mutant with cobalt claws that, we’re told, could kill Starman if the mutant makes a successful hit on Starman. During the battle, the mutant is cornered by the police and Starman. The cops open fire and the mutant replicates itself. The two mutants fly off in escape.

Meanwhile, scientists who are looking into the strange occurrences people have been witnessing are being killed one-by-one from a duo of trench coat Zemarians who use poisonous darts to kill their victims. They kill a number of scientists until they corner two children on a playground that witnessed one of their murders. Starman arrives just in time to save the children and send the Zemarians running.

The boy, having been mildly injured, is taken to a nearby hospital. But strange happenings have been afoot at the hospital as some of the previously injured scientists have ended up dead at the hospital. The boy soon finds out that one of the head physicians is a Zemarian in disguise and the head Zemarian base is located underneath the facility.

Zemarian germs, during this time, have been slowly infecting and killing people, and Starman is on the hunt. The current Zemarian leader is getting his orders from Balazar’s brain and a major attack on every major earth city is about to commence soon as mutants have been put in place.

Starman, along with the authorities, show up and a battle ensues. One of the bat-like mutants shows up again, killing a number of cops before Starman does battle. Chaos breaks out all around the Zemarian base. Eventually, the police subdue the remaining Zemarian minions and Starman defeats the mutant.

But Balazar’s brain is still alive. A scientist pours a solution on the brain, killing it. Starman says his thanks as do the people of earth. Starman flies off back to the Emerald Planet for one last time having saved the earth and leaving it, finally, in peace.

Story:

Evil Brain from Outer Space returns to a more science-fiction route that really took off with Invaders from Space. My focus on the film was stronger this time than it was on Attack from Space as there are interesting villains and some entertaining sequences in between the fights.

The story isn’t without its flaws as no Starman movie is:

• Two of the bat-like mutants were formed earlier in the movie. Yet, at the end, there is only one. What happened? This particular Starman film is a combination of three featurettes, and was the most trimmed down of any of the Starman movies. Nearly an hour-and-a-half is cut, so my speculation is that one of those mutants was in the actual film, but when Walter Manley edited these films together, this lost sequence was one of many that got cut for the U.S. release.
• Nuclear weapons are mentioned again at the beginning of the movie, yet they aren’t really mentioned nor used by the Zemarians. Germ warfare and mutants seems to be the Zemarians’ primary weapons.
• If mutants and other Zemarians were placed in various earth cities, what happened to those Zemarians and mutants? We are told that once the brain was destroyed, the mutants could no longer function, but the minions could; just without orders from a supreme commander. This isn’t the only Starman movie this has happened in where minions are stationed throughout the globe–it’s just more noticeable in this entry.

These were the most obvious ones to me. They can be looked over, but it’s a real shame that SO much of this movie ended up on the cutting room floor. I am very curious as to what all of these films would have looked like if they were left in their original state.

Again, I am losing love for the Emerald Men. We were told in previous movies that they send Starman solely to protect their own planet and not so much because earth needs a hero. Again, it’s understandable that the Emerald Men would want to protect themselves in the process, but their intentions don’t go down a two way street–they only go down a one way. We are specifically told that when nuclear weapons are in the picture that “it’s because of this that the Emerald Men are most concerned with.”

The story isn’t as tight as Attack from Space, but it brings in interesting elements that are a blend of all three movies. This makes Evil Brain from Outer Space already a superior movie than Attack from Space–not to mention a more enjoyable one.

Special Effects:

The effects work for Evil Brain from Outer Space is very good for the most part. The costumes, while still obvious that they look like costumes and not actual mutant bodies, are still fairly convincing enough and add an element of charm that has always made me enjoy these kinds of movies. (While I’ve given most of these movies pretty low ratings, I do find them to be more enjoyable than most films that are out there.)

There are a couple of moments when the effects work is not the greatest. One moment is when the bat mutant separates into two and flies off. The feet are missing in this shot, a sign that it’s a composite shot and even if the feet were present, they wouldn’t line up with the ground in the shot. The flying sequence looks very awful. It’s easy to tell that the actor was hanging from a string and flailing his arms and legs. It’s just a bad shot.

Another shot involves Starman and one of his flying sequences. There is an overhead shot of Starman flying and in this shot we see the apparatus that’s holding Ken Utsi in a flying position. It’s not terrible like the mutant flying scene, but it’s not good to see the actual tools used to create effects scenes.

Outside of that, the effects work is done pretty well. The Zemarian base and other sets that were constructed look marvelous and continue the trend that really became great set pieces in Attack from Space.

Action:

Once again, one of the major highlights of the movie. Attack from Space got really sloppy with the fighting and as a result looked completely inferior to the previous two movies. That is all fixed here.

There are a couple of quick moments where it’s obvious that Starman doesn’t hit his opponent, but they do a better job of hiding that mistake and moving quickly to the next foe. Starman’s two battles with the mutant and his one lone fight with the witch are the best only because these two foes have unique abilities and weapons that regular henchmen don’t have. This forces Starman to mix things up a bit and these two characters help make this movie, and the series as a whole, unique and fun.

The action scenes in Evil Brain from Outer Space are fewer but better spaced out. Not to mention with having a better story in between fights, that helps make these fight sequences more entertaining and the stakes feel a bit higher. The fights don’t feel like they’ve been thrown in for the sake of having a fight and to destroy the baddies; even though that is the ultimate purpose, but they feel more appropriate in their timing in the movie and not forced.

Overall (Both Evil Brain from Outer Space and the series as a whole):

Evil Brain from Outer Space is better than Attack from Space. While that movie had some good elements to it, it was simply uninteresting and a big letdown in the entertainment department after Invaders from Space kicked it up a notch.

We get a great variety of villains here that I do feel like this is an appropriate ending to the series. The fights are better choreographed and the story is put together in a way where there are few dull moments. Sure, the film is severely chopped up being that it was made from three featurettes when, placed side-by-side, totaled over two-and-a-half hours. We lose almost half that when Walter Manley put those three featurettes together to make this one movie. Because of that, this movie does seem choppy and the pacing a bit off. But I can’t wholly blame this iteration of the movie. That’s the fault of Walter Manley Enterprises.

With that said, Evil Brain from Outer Space just barely beats out Invaders from Space as my favorite Starman movie. This movie is pure fun! It may not have the tightest storytelling, but it doesn’t have the worst either. This is the one Starman movie I would show to everyone first before any of the others.

*READ BELOW THE RATING SCALE TO GET MY TAKE ON THE SERIES*

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So, what do I make of this series as a whole?

It has it’s problems and, thankfully, not all of those problems stem from the original featurettes from which these movies were edited from to make full-length films. Sure, some of the shortcomings stem from Shintoho and how they produced them, but the bulk of the blame has to be placed on Walter Manley Enterprises for butchering all four films–especially this last movie.

They have fun science-fiction components in them with very well choreographed battles for the most part. Some of the movies have dull stories (Attack from Space), some of the movies have severe story issues (Invaders from Space), but they all bring something unique to the table.

But the series does lack some consistency. We get human baddies, then aliens, we then get human baddies again, followed by more aliens with mutants. I personally wish the Starman series went more of the way of Invaders from Space and Evil Brain from Outer Space with having awesome science-fiction foes and elements. Yeah, to some that may be too wacky, but I find those two particular movies to be the most entertaining out of the four. The other two aren’t bad, but not as fun.

Attack from Space was the one I had the most trouble with in paying attention to only because the writers made the story not as entertaining as the other three. That’s not to say it’s a bad movie. I’ll take Attack from Space over most movies any day.

Despite my having given most of these movies low ratings, I still would recommend them. For the most part, they are pretty fun movies that have a fairly high entertainment value. These were made during Toho’s Golden Age and Shintoho, being a subsidiary of sorts to Toho Studios, brings their own “Golden Age” as well even if the overall quality is not Toho-like quality.

These movies are available at the time of this writing and are pretty reasonably priced. If you’re looking for some plain, old science-fiction fun, you really can’t go wrong with Starman. Just don’t expect anything of very high quality. Watch the films with a sense of childlike wonderment and you will enjoy these films.