Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

HottWwjdIam There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

XweAponX Imagine a space battle of ships found in George Lucas' garbage cans, where John-Boy Walton flies a talking ship that looks like part of a male anatomy and Napoleon Solo loves it when a Plan-9 comes together? I must be talking about Starcrash with Marjoe Gortner, right? Nope. But then again, much of the music in this pretty incredible farce found its way into Star Trek II: TWOK. And I mean when I say about some of the spaceships look like they were Filched from the garbage bin outside of ILM, we see half of an Empire Star Destroyer with the "Whale Probe" from Star Trek IV attached to the front end. John-Boy's ship appears to be pretty, eh, "organic". Look for Sam Jaffe, from the day the earth stood still (original one), as a Cyborg. And this is a little seven samurai "Ish". Needless to say, there is all kinds of great stuff in this movie and it's one of James Camerons early works. Despite some of the special effects looking like they were hijacked from a game of video ping-pong, you can see other effects that Cameron used and improved on later in his career. And it is much better than "Starcrash"!

jasongoodacre This film is pure entertainment, from its memorable characters and fun storytelling to its Star-Wars-esque (by a young James Cameron) special effects. How it only made $10 million bucks is beyond me when you consider Star Trek released the year earlier made over $100 million and was in my opinion the most boring sci-fi movie ever conceived. This is certainly a hidden gem and the marketing men behind this should have been fired for not turning it a hit.At the centre of the film is a morality tale - A band of space adventures turned mercenaries join together to defeat a space tyrant who threatens to destroy a planet. Richard Thomas (from The Waltons) is given the task as recruiter and hires among others George Peppard (from The A-Team) and Robert Vaughan (Man from Uncle) as a Magnificent Seven space battle ensues.Some of our heroes sadly die and you actually care about them which is a credit to the writers. Also I love some of the dialogue such as the exchange between our villain and Nestor 2 (1 of a set of clones) who gets captured. Sador: Are you capable of speech? Nestor 2: Yes, quite capable.Sador: And do you have a high tolerance for pain?Nestor 2: Almost none at all, I'm afraid.Sador: How unfortunate for you. So... How many ships do the Akira have, and what are their capabilities?Nestor 2: If I told you that, it would give you an unfair advantage.Sador: This is Frojo, my Third Officer. Frojo is expert at inflicting pain... while keeping the victim alive.Nestor 2: ...It's good to have skills." Better than the Black Hole and funnier than Flash Gordon (the leads back chatting ships computer Nell is a hoot), this film has the heart of Star Wars. A great popcorn movie to watch on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

moonmonday First, I have to say, this is certainly one of the most visually striking films Roger Corman has ever done. The effects are excellent, and the soundtrack is also fantastic. The cast are mostly fantastic...except unfortunately the main two leads, who manage to be the least likable of the whole thing. Part of that is due to the terrible script which, while it rather heavily borrows from a film classic, also has all the pitfalls of said classic: namely that it's depressing as hell.And ultimately, that's a failure when the film is essentially a sci-fi B movie. Those aren't watched to be depressing, they're watched to be enjoyable and even funny, silly, campy...whatever you might say about them, they're not supposed to be so dour. The smarmy Akir, by the end, are simply not characters the audience cares about, and I for one hated them and wished they'd been blown to smithereens at the beginning of the film -- it would've at least saved us the pain of having to sit through it. Their stupid religious precepts were nothing but smug and irritating, and the idiot Shad, our unfortunate 'hero', nothing but a placeholder who had no consistency whatsoever with his values.Who could possibly enjoy a film where everyone is barely vaguely- defined, and despite massive casualties, none of the heroes really gets a meaningful final scene? It's all dull and unhappy, and that makes it even more depressing. Characters are introduced, contribute little to the plot, and then when they dare to show any kind of development are then hastily removed from that plot, with nothing to show for their involvement. The ships were also, on the whole, not distinct enough aside from a few examples, to avoid confusion; by the end of it there was no ability to really tell who was good and who was bad, aside from the embarrassingly-designed Nell, the only spacecraft with boobs I've ever seen.Some have claimed that comparisons to Star Wars, its contemporary, were responsible for the ultimate failure of Battle Beyond the Stars. They're completely incorrect. The reason why it failed was because people simply do not want to see relentlessly depressing and downbeat B-grade science- fiction. Something as ridiculous as Battle Beyond the Stars only comes off as lacking and pretentious, utterly unable to reach its attempted goal and wholly contemptible for the attempt.

Tweekums When the evil tyrant Sador arrives at the planet Akir he announces that that if the people don't surrender when he returns in seven days he will use his 'stellar converter' to destroy the planet. Being a peaceful populace they have no chance of defeating him but one elderly man, Zed; who was their last warrior, says he has a fighting ship; he is too old to use it himself but another man, named Shad, offers to leave Akir in the ship and go and recruit mercenaries to fight the battle for them. He then sets about securing the services of a varied group that includes a wealthy assassin; the Nestor, a group of five clones that share a consciousness; a voluptuous Valkyrie warrior; Cowboy, a space-trucker from Earth; Nanelia, the daughter of an old friend of Zed. By the time they return to Akir they have seven ships ready to fight Sador; they are severely outgunned and many of them won't make it but they will fight him anyway!This film's low budget shows; the special effects look distinctly ropey when compared to big budget films of the time; for the most part they aren't terrible though and it is interesting to know that James Cameron; master of mega-budget special effects learnt his craft on a film like this. The story is solid enough; which one would expect given that is basically the plot of 'Magnificent Seven'... which itself is based on 'The Seven Samurai'. When the action starts it pretty good and there are plenty of comic moments that should raise a smile. The cast to a decent enough with Richard 'John-boy Walton' Thomas playing protagonist Shad and John Saxon hamming it up as the evil Sador, also present are two better known actors; Robert Vaughn and George Peppard... it isn't their best work by a long way but they do add to the proceedings. This is hardly a must see film but if you like moderately camp low budget sci-fi it is worth watching on television.