What do you guys think about Battle in Outer Space?

[August]

[kent]

[Tyler E. Martin]

[The Dark Uniter]

I really would like to see Toho's movies in a theater on the big screen. Too bad there's hardly any monster movie festivals in Maryland.

[Destroysall]

^Same here for AZ.

You know, this brings a question from me, is there a possibility to arrange a small fest at a theater? This might be a different topic though.

[The Dark Uniter]

[kent]

^ Then maybe I'll have to rewatch it this weekend...

[Benjamin Haines]

Well, I finally got around to watching this flick a couple days ago, and all in all I liked it. It's not spectacular and it's definitely on the weaker end of Honda's spectrum, and it does take some time to really get going, but once it does it's entertaining all the way through the end.

The entire opening was fantastic, with the destruction of the Space Center and the foreboding shots of the saucers heading for Earth, all set to Ifukube's marvelous score. I have to say that I found the whole exposition with the news stations reporting on the worldwide disasters to be a jumbled mess, but I think that was mainly because of the dubtitles on Sony's DVD that seldom corresponded with the flow of the spoken dialogue, so I'm not going to hold that against the film. Perhaps when I watch the dubbed US version that scene will run smoother.

The first act moved at a pretty sluggish pace, with lots of hokey pseudo-science being tossed about every which way. That whole "I think I love you!" scene early on was an eye-roller, but it's followed by a very cool scene involving Yoshio Tsuchiya's character getting possessed by the Natalians in his car.

It's not long before the characters head into space and the film really picks up. Lots of cool ships and vehicles on display, and that scene with the SPIPs blasting and evading the space torpedoes on their way to the moon was effectively gripping. Having Iwomura blow up one of the ships while the rest of the characters were away exploring was an interesting twist, and the battle with the Natalians on the moon was awesome. It all leads up to a terrific showdown on Earth with buildings crumbling and explosions abound, and man is it a sight to behold. This is some of the best FX work of Tsuburaya's career, and also one of Ifukube's best scores.

I haven't seen Transformers 2, nor do I intend to, but I seriously doubt comparing this film to it is accurate. I think a much better comparison for Battle in Outer Space would be Godzilla Raids Again. Both films have pacing issues, mostly thin characters, but the action/FX scenes in both movies are awesome. That's not to say that BIOS isn't a much better film than GRA, because it is, but the same kind of flaws are inherent in both movies.

It's no gem, but Battle in Outer Space is good enough for what it is, a showcase of innovative special effects and magnificent music wrapped up in a package that's directed well and paced competently enough to seal the deal. Thumbs up from me.

The Mysterians is better though.