JLRVancouver This film, the third of the anglicised Starman 'franchise', combines episodes 5 and 6 of the Japanese kid's show "Super Giant" into a tale about an attempted Earth takeover by aliens from the Sapphire Galaxy. As in the previous installments, the story opens with the benign beings of the Emerald galaxy, who are once again concerned about the state of the neighbourhood and send Starman to protect Earth against nuclear-armed aggressors. Also as in previous installments, the aliens use mind control to enslave humans, children are held as pawns to ensure cooperation, and Earth's future lies in hands of the intergalactic caped hero. While marginally better than the boring "Atomic Rulers" (the first film in the series), "Attack from Space" lacks the surreal silliness that made the second film ("Invaders from Space") so endearing. Beyond a couple of spaceship shots, some rudimentary scenes of cities being attacked, and possibly the first cinematic use of the term "Deathstar", the film does not have much to offer even the least demanding viewer. Unlike the odd but entertaining 'Salamandermen' in the previous film, the aliens in this opus are just humans in vaguely Nazi uniforms and the climactic battle between the invading horde and Starman is an interminable brawl, full of poorly choreographed 'martial arts' moves and silly 'reverse motion' shots, but with little of the gymnastics that highlighted the fights with the acrobatic 'Salamandermen'. Even by 1950's kid's show standards, the movie makes little sense and veers into complete ludicrousness when Starman rescues one of the hostages by carrying her, sans spacesuit, through space from the satellite to the Earth scientists' rocket ship. Overall, other than a checkmark on budget-tokusatsu (or 'camp') aficionados' life-lists, the film has little to offer.

Bezenby Hell, there might not be any sinister aliens here, but my god does that end fight pack a literal punch! Lordy! I'm getting ahead of myself here. What this all boils down to is that Starman is up against some Nazi aliens called the Spherions who are out to destroy earth using a space station equipped with the firepower to destroy an entire planet. Sound familiar? Well, that bit about the Death Star won't as I've never heard that phrase used before.Death Star you say? Well, it ain't a big space station that can destroy planets (although the Nazi aliens have one of them too), but an actual Star that means death for Starman. This film may be lacking in the scary alien department, but in the Starman floating through space department, this one wins.Also, this film has the best Starman fight ever, as instead of Starman taking on thirty to forty bad guys at a time, this time round he takes on about one hundred guys armed to the teeth, takes their guns from them, and shoots the hell out of everyone while laughing. I put the death toll here in the thousands as this fight scene goes on forever.Also, the makers of the film must have acquired a dummy that they then dressed in a bad guy costume, because your going to see this dummy about eight or nine times, being pushed off balconies or thrown across a room. Basically, the dummy makes the end fight scene easy.Starman manages to kill most of the Spherion species in this film as you would expect, but makes you a bit sad at the end by waving goodbye when you know the actual actor that played the Starman died this year.But for Starman fans I'd watch the film in the following sequence: Evil Brain from Outer Space, Invaders from Space, Attack from Space, and Atomic Rulers of the world.Yep

MartinHafer Giving this movie is a bit problematic, as I saw the English-dubbed version sent to the United States. It is possible (but not likely) that the Japanese version is a lot different and not quite so silly. Additionally, I am not sure that this movie was intended to be for adults but was perhaps more of a kids' movie. If that is the case, then my not being so impressed by it is somewhat understandable.This is a Japanese sci-fi movie about the Spherions and their unprovoked attack on the Earth. It seems the bizarre creatures on planet Emerald are concerned, as the aggressive Spherions could destroy them as well. Now you really need to see these "things" as the costumes they wear are pretty funny and it's just too hard to describe how stupid they look. However, their special agent who is sent to help the Earth, Starman, is pretty easy to describe. He actually looks a lot like Duck Dodgers of the 26-1/2 Century--with the same sort of body suit and a little antenna on his head!! This guy can fly through space without a ship and beat the snot out of the lame Spherions. I call them lame because they use guns that spout a lot of smoke but don't do much harm. Heck, an Uzi or Tommy Gun could do a lot more damage! However, Starman's amazing skills and powers appear to be no match for the power of the Spherions and it looks like Starman is dead (yeah, right). So, it's up to a group of very stupid but plucky Japanese people to take on the entire Spherion empire by themselves. However, every time they are about to gain the upper hand, the Spherions take one of them prisoner--at which point they give up the fight to get that single person back--and thus lose a planet of 6 billion! Seems like a reasonable trade, huh? But, at the last minute, Starman appears once again after a long absence and he smiles as he punches, kicks, flips and shoots the baddies. And, in the end, when the ship leaves the doomed Spherion space station without one of their family members, Starman flies her through space with no pressure suit or oxygen for an extended period. And, after the baddies all die, they have a good laugh and say goodbye to the hero wearing the silly leotards.The film has decent production values, with nice uniforms and a few decent special effects. However, the story is just limp and silly throughout and will most likely make you laugh. But, because it is so limp and rather kitschy, it's also a great film to watch with friends, as you'll no doubt have a great time laughing at the absurdity of the film from start to finish.By the way, this is one of three films that were created by hacking the 1958 "Super Giant" movie series apart and splicing it into three very bizarre films. I have also seen EVIL BRAIN FROM OUTER SPACE--which is even worse than ATTACK FROM SPACE.

lordzedd-3 I hear that this is based on a really old TV show, Starman. I heard good things about it. But it's like this movie I think I'd rather pass on the TV show. This movie has terrible production value, the story was boring and repetitive. The dubbing was God Awful and basically it's one big stink fest. Anyone who calls GAMERA or GODZILLA cheesy, don't know what cheesy is. Look up cheesy in the dictionary and you'd find a picture of this movie. Look at the costume for a second, goofy with that antenna. The evil aliens were just humans. Not one monster except for the council. I love Japanese stuff, and I'm the one defending Japanese sci-fi when other people call it crap. But this is one of those rare times when the Japanese dropped the ball big time and didn't care. I give ATTACK FROM SPACE...THE NOOSE!