Santo el Enmascarado de Plata vs 'La invasión de los marcianos'

The ridiculousness of this film is very funny, what automatically makes it less bad than other awful movies.

Though, even when you make a film with bizarre costumes, a silly story, and bad acting, at least one expects it to have internal logical consistency.

This Mexican superhero film, though, contradicts itself too much seriously (for example, just a touch is enough to teletransport a human, but the Martians who wrestle against Santo cannot do it with him; besides that, the first alien to fight Santo has a disintegration ray but does not try to use it against him, although having the hero as a powerful opponent, and only uses it against people who do not offer any risk to them).

Even the (excessively long) fight scenes are very bad (asslock, headbutt on the sphincter and other ridiculous attacks, with no visually impressive jump) and boring.

Claiming to be concerned about mankind's advancement into space and fearful of our destructive nature, a group of supposedly peace-loving Martians travel to Earth and insist on total disarmament and the formation of a global government. If the human race does not comply, the space visitors are prepared to disintegrate the planet using their advanced technology. However, when the Martians vaporise a bunch of kids to show that they mean business, luchador Santo smells a rat. Sure enough, the aliens aren't interested in peace -- they're planning an invasion of Earth -- and it is up to the masked Mexican wrestler to send them packing.

From the beefy, shirtless, male Martians in silly wigs and silver capes and the beautiful busty blonde female crewmembers in matching leotards, to the many badly staged wrestling scenes, to the ridiculous sci-fi special effects, which include a hilarious hubcap flying saucer, an 'astral eye' vaporiser, and a transformation chamber that changes the Martians hairstyles and clothing, Santo vs The Martians is pure '60s camp. The fantastical elements are entertaining for their sheer cheeziness (the budget was obviously very low), and a dance routine by the four sexy female aliens is hilarious, but the fighting, of which there is quite a lot, is fairly dull, unless you happen to particularly enjoy watching burly, sweaty, semi-naked men grappling with each other.

i would put this Santo film as among the best with SANTO VS. LAS LOBAS & SANTO Y BLUE DEMON VS Dracula Y EL HOMBRE LOBO. there is a lot of action here in SANTO VS LA INVASION DE LOS MARCIANOS and Santo looks as though he is really going at it with wrestlers in the ring and the villains who are aliens from another world vaporizing citizens of Mexico with a 'third eye' on their hoods. you can hear Santo's grunts in the fight scenes. i saw this on DVD and the black and white here is beautifully clear and great direction by alfredo d. crevenna. the DVD cover is misleading since santo doesn't brandish a gun nor head to another planet. he does enter the martians' spaceship to whack off the aliens. and santo does some brilliant planning here.

1)before a match with a masked wrestler (who is the head martian that knocked out the original masked opponent in his dressing room), santo suspects that an alien (real life wrestler ham lee) is hiding in his dressing room. the alien vanishes, santo soon knows trouble is coming. since the match is decided by the loser's mask ripped off, santo dons a mask within his mask. santo meets his match in the ring, and sees his opponent with a large silver transporter belt meaning it is the martian. santo's 1st mask is ripped and then he pummels the villain until he disappears using his belt.

2)santo stages a wonderful plot of staging a match in a ring but no spectators. this is to lure the martians in and santo goes at it with 3-4 aliens at once and it is a terrific sequence. and this whole actioner is santo's best work despite the silly plot and what the aliens, male and female are wearing. i had a good time. if you raise the TV volume, the sounds of the bodyslams, the grunts and the martians' pinging are pretty loud.

Three-eyed, fit bodied Martian socialists want to the world to disarm their nuclear weapons, stop war, have the Earthling start a universal language, and everyone to love one another...or DIE. They decide to teach the world a lesson by conquering Mexico. They capture universal TV airwaves to voice their intentions, but thinking it's a new TV show, everyone laugh. But ElSanto, the masked wrestling superhero is listening as well and plan to out wrestle these commies..um.. i mean space aliens. They choose to send one alien to a soccer game to show the power of their disintegrating third eye. But Santo happens to be there teaching prepubescent boys how to wrestle each other for the benefit of defending the weak. When El Santo sees the alien, it's wrestling time. To tell you anymore would be a great disservice. Suffice it to say you HAVE to experience this camp classic for yourself in ALL it's glory. You WILL be wanting to search out each and every one of El Santo's other 57 films after you finish seeing this one. TRUST ME!! It's just that awesome.

My Grade:A

DVD Extras: 33 and a half minute interview with El Hijo del Santo (Son of Santo); 6 & a half minute retrospective on Santo; Biographies on El Santo & Wolf Ruvinskis; Santo Filmography; Theatrical Trailer, and trailers for "In Raw Flesh", "One's as Good as the other", and "Coming of Age"

My introduction to the Santo cult proved to be a somewhat disappointing experience. Santo is not so much a Mexican Super-Hero as a Mexican Bruce Lee. Instead of kung fu, we are treated to wrestling. Mucho lucha. Demasiado lucha! It never stops. Santo cannot step into a room without stepping into the fray. I admit it was well staged, but the sound effects were overdone. I liked the girls best, especially Belinda Corell. On the other hand, the male Martians were totally unconvincing. Complete with ridiculously fake wigs, they looked about as much like men from Mars as refugees from Central Casting. Not that the rest of the players were much better. Only the always reliable Manuel Zozaya (who rarely received decent roles matching his abilities) as the professor and the impressively voiced "Picoro" (doing his customary stint as the ring announcer) stood out in a very mediocre cast.

Production values were also second-class with ho-hum special effects that wouldn't gladden the hearts of a group of seven-year-olds; plus competently routine photography by Jorge Stahl (who did such good work on Henry Hathaway's 1954 Garden of Evil); and all topped off by capable but blissfully unimaginative direction from that veteran workhorse in Mexican cinema, Alfredo B. Crevenna (who helmed no less than 150 features between 1945 and his retirement at the age of 81 in 1995).

Sci-fi fans will be hard pressed to find anything to cheer about in this effort. It's the sort of film that a quickie serial producer like Columbia's Sam Katzman would have been proud of, but it didn't strike many chords with me.