I can't believe it's taken me this long to discover this. This was released in December of 1978, and it clearly borrows freely from Star Wars. But it borrows from a variety of sources, and for an Italian knockoff, it's really pretty fun.
Everyone over-acts. It's spectacular, and it really makes everything move faster. In fact, things feel like they slow down during the action. While everyone does a great job of delivery, the really amazing work is done by Joe Spinell, as the villainous Count Zarth Arn. I can't do his work justice.
The story hops along briskly, with some massively strange plot developments aided by technobabble. This isn't run-of-the-mill Star Trek variety stuff, but it's so massively outdated that none of it makes any sense. Incredulous delivery of the line "These are pre-programmed computers!" or "We'll scan it with our computer waves."
The effects work is very cheap, but it never seems annoying. Obvious miniatures are ok. The shots in space are nice, but I have a weird little thing I've been focused on. There are too many stars in space in Star Wars. There are too many in Star Trek. But in both of those cases, I don't mind it, since the stars actually provide a certain orientation in the shot. In this movie, there are so many stars that it's overwhelming.
Is it good? Not exactly, but it's really worth watching.
No comments:
Post a Comment