A space opera came out in 1977 that is the model for what good films about aliens and space travel are all about, replacing another classic that had come out almost a decade before that. This isn't "2001" or "Star Wars", or my favorite film about galaxy travel, "Silent Running", but there had been much worse before and since. Yes, the special effects are often silly with one moment of a battle looking like one of the very first video games. I almost expected to hear the Pac-Man sound when a spaceship exploded. But for what it is, it is a lot of fun, and I enjoy giving good reviews to movies that I had fun watching, not just ones that are filled with noisy special effects or advanced technically in the art of moviemaking.
I couldn't help but laugh along with the opening segment of an old farmer being taken into a spaceship and later telling everybody listening that he was forced to have sex with a mute woman on the spaceship. Then there's the family traveling along with a young son sees the spaceship, and the next thing you know, the mom is sitting naked on the spaceship, having fluids taken out of her body, and then conveniently back in the car as radioactivity levels are noticed by devices inside the vehicle. From there, there is more of the same as well as a rash of suicides, and the Revelation that these aliens are descended from earthlings from millenniums before and have come back to earth to take over the planet since theirs is in disarray. Apparently white people from ancient Egypt somehow made a spaceship, went into outer space and settled their own planet which is now undergoing a crisis. Before long, leaders of that planet come down to earth to try to destroy those from their planet who have decided to defect, and since they are there decided to take over Earth as well. Hey, why not?
Robert Vaughn and Christopher Lee lead the cast of this film which was probably more fun on drive-in screens than in local movie theaters simply because it has that feeling of a 1950's and 60's sci-fi thriller where you don't even have to hear the dialogue to know what's going on. Kids could play on the swings while watching the movie from outside and follow along. It certainly is fun to point out all the cheesiness about the film, but I was very much entertained and wasn't as much laughing at the film as I was laughing at the situations and some of the unintentionally funny dialogue. They certainly were worse or silly or science fiction films of the same brand in the 70's that I couldn't even make it through, and the atmosphere of this film made me crave a big bag of popcorn. It's that type of fun 70's silliness that they don't make anymore.
I couldn't help but laugh along with the opening segment of an old farmer being taken into a spaceship and later telling everybody listening that he was forced to have sex with a mute woman on the spaceship. Then there's the family traveling along with a young son sees the spaceship, and the next thing you know, the mom is sitting naked on the spaceship, having fluids taken out of her body, and then conveniently back in the car as radioactivity levels are noticed by devices inside the vehicle. From there, there is more of the same as well as a rash of suicides, and the Revelation that these aliens are descended from earthlings from millenniums before and have come back to earth to take over the planet since theirs is in disarray. Apparently white people from ancient Egypt somehow made a spaceship, went into outer space and settled their own planet which is now undergoing a crisis. Before long, leaders of that planet come down to earth to try to destroy those from their planet who have decided to defect, and since they are there decided to take over Earth as well. Hey, why not?
Robert Vaughn and Christopher Lee lead the cast of this film which was probably more fun on drive-in screens than in local movie theaters simply because it has that feeling of a 1950's and 60's sci-fi thriller where you don't even have to hear the dialogue to know what's going on. Kids could play on the swings while watching the movie from outside and follow along. It certainly is fun to point out all the cheesiness about the film, but I was very much entertained and wasn't as much laughing at the film as I was laughing at the situations and some of the unintentionally funny dialogue. They certainly were worse or silly or science fiction films of the same brand in the 70's that I couldn't even make it through, and the atmosphere of this film made me crave a big bag of popcorn. It's that type of fun 70's silliness that they don't make anymore.