Kent Reviews “Attack From Space”

Evildoers with intentions of taking over the earth using nuclear weapons are at it again in Attack from Space; the third entry in the Starman quadrilogy!

After Invaders from Space, I was hoping this third entry would continue to improve on the sci-fi components of the story and greatly reduce the number of plot holes in the film. After watching the movie, only one of those was completely satisfied while the other, continued the tradition of the previous film, but didn’t improve on it.

The story is what got better this time. In fact, it’s significantly tighter. The sci-fi element, however, is a mild mixture of Invaders from Space and Atomic Rulers. I would actually say this film is closer to Atomic Rulers than it is Invaders from Space. There are no aliens in this films; well, technically there are, but they are exactly like humans in outer appearance. There are atomic weapons being used this time which was lacking heavily in the previous film. The only sci-fi elements, outside of the stock footage of the Emerald Planet, are some shots of several spacecrafts and the main headquarters of the aliens, called Sapphirians, is inside one of their space crafts and one of the interiors of a rocket is used occasionally as well.

However, the movie’s entertainment value is pretty low. Yeah, I’m already showing my hand this early in the review. I feel, though, it needs to be said early in the review. Entertainment is the main reason why I watch movies in general. Unless there are plot holes so glaring that they interfere with my enjoyment of a film to a degree (i.e. Invaders from Space), I can look past most flaws and give the film the benefit of the doubt. But if you aren’t that entertaining, you fall in my book; and you fall fast.

Let me proceed with the review so you can see some of the specifics.

Synopsis:

The Sapphirians, hailing from the Sapphire Galaxy, are looking to take over the earth. They have possession of nuclear weapons and are itching to use them soon.

Of course, those men from the Emerald Planet, for a third consecutive time, don’t want their planet exposed to nuclear fallout. They send out Starman once again, equipped with his globemeter again, to save planet earth.

Starman intercepts one of the Sapphirian saucers and destroys it, but that’s not the end of it. The Sapphirians have already infiltrated parts of the earth and have their eyes on Dr. Yamanaka’s spaceship. Yamanaka’s ship is built in secret so it won’t fall into the wrong hands, as it can fly like any other spacecraft and can be used as a weapon against the earth.

The Sapphirians, already knowing this, kidnap Yamanaka, his daughter, Kaoru, and son. Yamanaka refuses to use his own ship against the earth, so his mind is wiped and put under a mild hypnosis as well as his two children. The Sapphirians want to use nuclear weapons to destroy and take over the earth and are, oddly enough, modeled after the Nazis (no joke, they have military-like uniforms and their salute is very similar, if not the same salute, to the Nazis’). Now Yamanaka’s ship can be used against the earth.

The world leaders are puzzled as to what course of action to take until Starman shows up and says he will do everything he can to stop the menace. Starman proceeds to relentlessly attack the invaders while Kaoru and her brother are able to disguise Kaoru as a Sapphirian in order to break themselves free. But not before the Sapphirians use several nuclear weapons on New York City and London.

Starman pursues the Sapphirians; even so far as to trail them through a burning star called the Death Star (George Lucas: You’re on notice.). Eventually Starman makes his way to the main ship and a long fight ensues. Dr. Yamanaka readies his ship to detach itself from the alien spaceship and head home.

Starman shoots, kicks, flips, and chops his way through a nearly never-ending wave of soldiers. Kaoru helps out by firing a machine gun herself. Starman subdues most of the Sapphirians, but Yamanaka has already launched his ship, leaving Starman and Kaoru behind. Starman flies the two of them onto Dr. Yamanaka’s ship where they proceed to make the ship reach speeds of up to Mach 80 to throw the Sapphirian ship out of orbit. Once that has been accomplished, the ship explodes.

Starman says his goodbyes as Dr. Yamanaka and his family head back to earth.

Story:

Here’s where the good and the bad come in.

There aren’t that many plot holes here, although there are some; and most of them I can look over. The most apparent ones that may bother some people include:

• At the end of the final battle, Starman and Kaoru walk on an outside bridge of the Sapphirian ship. With space being devoid of oxygen, how can Kaoru breathe, let alone continue to be alive even after Starman flies her back to her father’s ship?
• What are the motives for the Sapphirians to take over the earth?

There are a few others as well, but they aren’t as glaring and I even suspect some of them are the result of the film having been edited by Walter Manley Enterprises. For example, there is a scene during the final battle where Starman throws one of the soldiers through the port hole where the missiles are fired out of. Starman, then, proceeds to grab one of the rails carrying a missile and throw it at the soldier who’s in the port hole. There is, however, a strange cut that is very obvious. I cannot say whether this cut was used to hide the fact that the soldier was actually a dummy double or even if Shintoho found the scene inappropriate. My guess, however, falls in line with Walter Manley making the cut themselves, because after the missile is thrown towards the port hole, even the rail that supported the missile is gone.

While there is quite a bit of fighting in the film, the overall story is actually quite dull. The Sapphirians are menacing, but outside of firing a few missiles, they don’t do much. Not to mention, many of the scenes not involving any action are really boring. There isn’t much in the way of building tension or developing characters. It’s simply…dull.

Even the fairly impressive Death Star set makes no sense story wise. Why would Starman feel the need to follow the Sapphirians through it? We are told his steel-like body may not hold up to the tremendous heat, but he flies low to the planet anyways. Why couldn’t he have simply followed it from a reasonable distance above?

Again, like the previous two Starman movies, we are supposed to believe he is in danger at various points. The fact is, nothing is even remotely followed through to the tiniest bit. Not one iota of a moment when he could potentially be defeated (Well, except for that scene in Atomic Rulers where a nuclear bomb is placed inside this box he’s trapped in. But even that was ridiculous in how it was handled.).

Special Effects: 

The sets for Attack from Space steal the show here. They are beautifully decorated and the inside of the main Sapphirian ship is huge. We don’t get curtains covering up any of the sets like we got in Invaders from Space.

Again, some model work is used. We get several explosion shots when missiles strike down on New York and London. We even get the model set for the Death Star. It’s hills are jagged and many firespouts litter the surface, attacking anything that gets in their way. Sadly, this scene is short-lived.

There are some camera tricks, once again, to aid in how certain actions are presented. For example, in one scene, Starman has a man on the floor next to a flight of stairs. He kicks the man in the direction of the stairs and the man rolls up the stairs. It’s obvious this segment was played backwards. It’s silly, but at the same time fun.

There are a handful of dummies used to represent some of the soldiers Starman throws around as well. I mentioned one of these earlier discussing a soldier thrown into a port hole. Dummies are used several more times when Starman needs to throw someone a great distance or into a dangerous situation that could get a man killed.

The effects work is still pretty good here but there are some minute moments when it’s obvious what’s being done to portray a particular scene. Nevertheless, I believe many of these things can be overlooked.

Action Sequences:

As stated earlier, there are quite a few actions scenes in this movie. More than the previous two films. As with Atomic Rulers and Invaders from Space, the choreography of the fights is one of the best things about the movie.

But, sadly, like the effects to a degree, the choreography takes a step or two backwards. While everyone, including Ken Utsui, knows his role in battle and how to pull off his act, there are many moments when there are some poorly timed moves on both Utusi’s part and his counterparts. One such scene involved the soldier already having acted out where Utusi was going to hit him while Utusi was a second or two late from actually beginning his move set on this one soldier. For this sequence, it appeared to me Utusi may have gotten held up a bit with the previous soldier. The other actor may have accidentally kept Utusi down on the floor longer than he needed to be.

There are moments, too, when it’s very obvious contact isn’t being made in the hand-to-hand sequences. The movies, up until this point, have done a pretty good job of making it seems as if fists are actually making contact. Not so much here. I’m not saying that most hits aren’t looking like they aren’t making contact, only about a third, which, I admit, is probably nitpicking on my part. But when it happens enough times, I find that it takes me out of the movie.

One thing that I have to say, that I didn’t say in the story section above, is Starman’s use of guns. He uses pistols and machine guns here that were used by the Sapphirians. Some may not be put off by this, but, for me, when I superhero resorts to using guns, I immediately lose quite a bit of respect for that superhero and don’t find him/her to be that super any longer. For entertainment purposes, seeing Starman blaze the baddies with gunfire may be exciting, but in the traditional superhero formula, it is a grave sin. I was immediately taken aback by this. On the one hand, I laughed, because Starman, literally, stands around for a few moments and shoots at everyone around him. It’s lazy fighting. On the other hand, I was shocked for the reasons I just stated: a superhero using a gun is just shocking to me (I understand some of the superheroes used guns in their earlier incarnations.).

The ending fight is really long, too. Normally, I don’t mind a good, long fight. But this one was too long to the point where I was losing focus. This is probably due to the fact that most Starman fights are the same: kick, flip, mock the foes, dominate, repeat. Starman, again, is never in any danger of being defeated by his enemies. He stands around on several occasions, arms out to either side, and laughs; mocking his enemies. While that’s badass to a degree, it’s a bore when you’ve seen it many times.

Overall:

Attack from Space fixes the plot hole issues we found in Invaders from Space, but that’s not to say this movie has it’s own story issues. Nevertheless, they are significantly fewer in number compared to the previous movie.

The story is more tightly written, but, somewhere along the line, the sci-fi element was reduced and the non-action scenes are an absolute bore fest. I honestly had a difficult time paying attention to most of this movie due to the lack of suspense and tension building. But I believe, too, that seeing Starman utterly dominating every foe and situation he runs into is a part of the reason why I had difficulties paying attention.

The Sapphirians aren’t that interesting either. Technically, they’re aliens, but look exactly like human beings. They are more threatening than the goons in Atomic Rulers, but they don’t do much to continue displaying how much of a threat they really are.

The fight sequences and some of the effects work takes a step back on this project. While they don’t suffer to the point of drastically altering my final take on the movie, they are apparent and can be a bit of an annoyance for some viewers. The fighting also goes on longer than it really needed to. Starman using guns was a put off for me as well.

Ultimately, while those elements do weigh my final take on the film, they don’t have as much weight as the fact that the film is utterly dull. It suffers from the been-theres-and-done-thats while not bringing anything really fun and exciting to the table like the previous two films did. I still would recommend people giving it a watch and seeing it for themselves to find out what they make of it, but for me, it’s just a boring film for the most part. It’s produced fairly well, just not that exciting.

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