Best movie of this year hands down!

Sorry, this movie sucks

Just what I expected

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

In the 21st Century. After six months, the spacecraft MK 31 commanded by Captain Hamilton is on the return flight to Earth, having successfully carried out a special space mission. When the on-board computer receives strange radio signals, the crew pays no attention at first. But from earth comes the order to investigate the signals. Reluctantly, Captain Hamilton obeys the instructions from earth-base. Suddenly, the MK 31 is attacked by alien spaceships with laser weapons. Hamilton loses control of the ship and it rushes toward a planet on which it will be smashed to pieces. Miraculously the dive is stopped at the last moment: "The spaceship is sustained by an anti-gravitational force of unknown origin", reports the on-board computer. Once the crew has overcome the initial shock, a landing party is assembled to investigate the planet, which has an Earth-like atmosphere. Here, however, they are soon attacked by a giant robot, who kills several astronauts with his energy weapon. Hamilton and the rest of the crew discover a large stone gate, which turns out to be a kind of transmitter. As they walk through it, they are transported into a cave from which the mysterious radio signals are coming. As they investigate the cave, they are captured by humanoid aliens. The leader of the aliens, who are actually peacefully minded towards mankind, recounts what has happened to his race. In their highly developed civilization, intelligent computer and machines played an important role in daily life. One day there was a "Rise of the Machines", which ended in a nuclear disaster. Humans evolved back into an "animal state" and retreated back into the caves beneath the planet. From the machines, a supercomputer emerged, who still terrorizes the aliens and whose aim is to conquer the universe. However, in a collaborative effort the humans and the aliens succeed in destroying the computer. This triggered a massive explosion that leads to a chain reaction which will destroy the entire planet, and with it the race of the aliens. At the last second, the MK 31 spacecraft launched back into space, leaving the bursting planet behind. But one of the aliens could be rescued and taken on board. On the flight back to Earth, the liberated, evil power of the supercomputer takes possession of one of the crew members, who transforms into a kind of zombie. He attacks the last survivor of the alien race and kills him. BATTAGLIE NEGLI SPAZI STELLARI is one of five low-budget sci-fi films that the late Italian director Alfonso Brescia staged in one go in the years 1977 and 1978, in response to the immense success of STAR WARS. For all movies he used the same, slightly modified sets and costumes, the same optical effects and animated sequences and the actors are largely the same in all the films, with only some different actors in the main parts. Of course, the technicians behind the scenes are largely identical for all the films. This extremely low-cost production method allowed Brescia to stage five films for the price of one, so to speak. The other four movies of this quintet are: ANNO ZERO - GUERRA NELLO SPAZIO (77), SETTE UOMINI D'ORO NELLO SPAZIO (78), LA GUERRA DEI ROBOT (78) and LA BESTIA NELLO SPAZIO (78). That such an approach, however, can not produce high-caliber films is obvious. And therefore, BATTAGLIE NEGLI SPAZI STELLARI is an involuntarily comic space-opera, with protagonists in funny outfits, cheap special effects, an oblique synth soundtrack and silly dialogs. The actors were put in light gray "pajamas", with extra wide belts and red inserts, a red cap, which extends up to the ears and gray boots. Simply chic! The humanoid aliens in turn are bald, have a bluish metallic skin and pointy ears a la "Mr.Spock". The set design as a whole looks at least quite expensive. Because of the idea to use the sets for four more films, the producers have probably invested a little more money into it. It seems, that the art director was allowed to let his imagination loose, because the sets are almost overloaded with a plethora of wild flashing and flickering lights, consoles and screens. On the other hand, in case of the tools the astronauts are using, it looks as if probably the red pencil again was used, and so the set decorator has had to shop at the nearest hardware store (metal detector) or the store for auto parts (hazard warning lamp). As luck would have it (for the producers at least), the surface of the alien planet is almost entirely blurred in darkness, and as the viewer does not see much anyway, the producers thought it was not necessary to evoke the illusion of an alien world. Saved money again! The already mentioned electronic music is a mix of classic elements (Bach) and noisy synthesizer sounds in the style of Raymond Scott and his "Soothing Sounds for Baby." The story of the film makes little sense, and something like suspense does not even arise. The dialog, however, are sometimes quite funny, for example when one of the astronauts exclaims indignantly, "Hey, how does that guy know our language?". In another scene, a male astronaut and a female astronaut practicing "Cosmic Love", for which they sit side by side on a bed, connected to a "virtual sex machine" and have sex with each other without even get in touch. Bleak outlook!

Isn't it interesting how often in these poor science fiction, there is a loose cannon. In this one, it's a commander that is fed up with being given instructions by computers (in this case it's called the WIZ, believe it or not.) He take his crew to an unfriendly planet and gets them embroiled with a robot controlled society. They push a button and destroy the robot. If only people from eons of civilization had decided to push that button. The acting is horrible. I kept trying to recognize the voice of the commander (dubbed, of course), and I realized it sounded like Clayton Moore, the guy who played the Lone Ranger. I know it's not him, but it has that same nasal quality. I did get a kick out of the guys with funny red suits with the little caps. They look like they were created by some sixties fashion designers. It drags and drones on for an hour and a half. There isn't much that happens that is memorable.

Where to begin? The clothes all look like they're from a 30's sci fi film, even though this was made in the 70s. The dubbing is terrible. The plot is almost totally incoherent; it centers around a hothead space captain who believes that he can make better decisions than computers, and therefore is always getting into trouble (though in this film, he's probably right considering that the main computer is called "The Wiz", no kidding!). The characters actions often don't make any sense, like one scene where two crew members die, but everyone else is happy for no good reason. The evil giant robot looks like something they made on purpose to make people laugh, but you're supposed to think it's scary. Throughout everything, the deadly earnest and serious tone of the acting and story just makes the whole experience more surreal and more funny. My favorite scenes: destroying the giant robot/computer, and the space command guys dealing with the reporters. This film is worth seeing with a bunch of friends, with or without any substances that may enhance one's sense of humor!

In a future where all decisions are made by a giant supercomputer called "The WIZ" (I kid you not) and military men wear weird little miniskirts, renegade space captain Mike Leighton is sent on a routine mission. His ship is attacked by two alien ships. On orders from Earth he lands on the alien's planet which seems at first to be deserted - don't they always? - one by one his crew men are attacked and killed by a mysterious force (actually it's only one crew man - this film is THAT cheap). The captain and his party are lured into a mysterious cave where they meet the "degenerate" remnants of the former inhabitants. The leader of the natives informs them that that once his people once ruled the planet till the machines they built took over. Leighton agrees to help destroy the machine brain that rules the planet (I'm making this all sound a lot more coherent and structured than it actually is). They return to the ship and consult their on-board computer who tells them the Bad computer will have a destruct button, "probably red" (I wish I was making this up). The captain and another crew member confront the Deep Thought like supercomputer and are instructed by it to replace one of its circuit boards, the only thing stopping it from dominating the galaxy. They do so and spot a red button. They press the red button. The computer explodes. The planet starts to explode (as they do) with the usual stock footage of volcanoes tinted nice reddish colours. The crew make their escape taking with them 2 crew members we know have been attacked and left for dead by the evil supercomputers robot henchthing. Big Mistake! Big mistake! Within minutes one of them is wandering around frothing at the mouth killing people as his face falls off - our hero soon puts a stop to that by jettisoning him into outer space but there is one final twist to come!... and you'll just have to watch the movie to find that out.I was amazed to discover this film was made as late as 1977. It looks like a 1960 film. It is truly awful. The music is dreadful - almost random. At one point, when we first see the Bad computer, they actually use Bach's Toccatta and fugue in D minor!. The dubbing is hilarious and I guess the dubbed script must have been written by the Italians because the English is so tortured and twisted to make it fit the lip sync that it, at times, makes no sense at all. Even more amazingly when there is no need to lip sync, like when the natives talk to the Captain telepathically or the computers talk, the English is just as bad.Surrealy Awful