Invaders from Space

Out of the four films edited together from the Japanese television series, this one is by far the best. While the costumes look fairly basic in places, there are also frequent moments where the costume design suitably capture the overall creepy atmosphere of the film. The sound works well in helping to establish atmosphere, and while a traditional story structure still isn't possible due to being formed from multiple TV episodes, there is an overall plot and several cases of setting up a climax that actually pays off. An additional bonus is there seems to have been more effort into creating the fight scenes, with better choreography and better editing, giving a more convincing appearance than the usual festival of minions throwing a punch, missing and consequently falling over.

In conclusion, if you're going to watch the Starman films, watch this one last. Otherwise the others will not live up to expectation!

Of all the bad old superhero films, the Starman series are probably my favourite. Not a good film in the traditional sense, but highly amusing if you like bad films. Lots of ridiculous costumes, poorly dubbed dialogue and absurd plot combine to make a highly amusing bad film that is great to watch with friends. There is something charming about a lycra clad superhero flying after alien Salamander-men in their flying-saucer and foiling their absurd plans to destroy the world. Perhaps the best part of this film are the fight scenes which are the most ridiculous and absurd I have seen since watching Turkish Starwars. There is clearly little-to-no fighting choreography, so it is just a horde of Salamander-men literally dancing around Starman before he Karate chops them into the next dimension. Starman is so untouchable and overpowered it is a wonder the Salamander-men even bothered to try and fight him - and the best part ... the Salamander-men explode after being chucked into water (for some reason)! These films are a great source of unintentional absurdist humour. If you enjoyed this be sure to watch the other Starman films, they are all great and are available for free on youtube.

This fusion of episodes 3 and 4 of "Space Giant" finds the Japan's man of steel, in his see-through and suggestively padded costume, battling Salamander Men from the Planet Kulimon in the Moffit galaxy (I kid you not). The invaders have the ability to change their appearance (or, sometimes, most of their appearance) and are spreading a deadly contagion by disguising themselves as an avant-garde dance troupe. Weird beyond belief, the film is full of acrobatic 'fight' scenes in which none of the kicks or punches seem to make contact but that include lots of back flips and cart wheels. At one point children are pursued by a Kulimonian disguised as a nurse (a creepy scene) who then seems to turn into a cackling witch. While much more lively than the leaden Atomic Rulers (the first Starman movie), there are some tedious moments (e.g. the flying saucer chase scene) and the special effects are laughable. I don't know how much has been lost in translation, but apparently the 'Salamander Men' were actually 'kappa', a Japanese mythological water sprite (which fits their look but not the Moffit Galaxy backstory). There may be other cultural tropes that I am missing (at times the Salamander Men make-up resembles 'slit-mouth', a motif that occurs in Japanese horror). The film is hard-to-rate, being a definite 10 for fans of weird cinema but probably unwatchable for most everyone else.

I personally love to see the theater dance fighting and this film has that... some of the best scenes in the film to me. I also love some of the eerie imagery that we see in this film - it's almost to the point of a horror film. What's lacking to me just a little tiny bit is the story that needed just a little bit more pizazz to me - the on screen visuals and dance fighting has quite a bit of it though, that's very nice.

Here we have Starman (a Japanese superhero) that is saving Earth from the evil salamander men! I prefer this movie over the Starman film "Evil Brain from Outer Space (1965)" and I liked that film too. Really fun movies if you ask me.

I acquired this film from the Sci-Fi Invasion 50-Pack and I must say I'm glad they added it. I enjoyed the movie.

7/10

This movie is so corny that its fun, watching starman beat the shait out of every salamender man (i am going to call them that) is pretty fun, the story is, meh, but the action is well paced and pretty good to be honest, a must watch if you are intrested in corny action