Message from Space

[Pacman000]

I finally got this on DVD!  Hopefully I'll get to watch it soon.

In Japan & France there was a TV series; in the US someone edited it into a movie: Swords of The Space Ark.  I'll have to find a copy of that, somehow.

[Rev. Powell]

This is on Netflix streaming until 5/1/2013, so hurry up and catch it. It's also recently been released on DVD by Shout! Factory.

I believe I saw this when it first came out in 1978 when I was about 10. I remember the sailing ships in space, thinking that it was going to be another STAR WARS, and discovering that it was a cheap piece of Japanese crap instead. I remember walking out of the theater and playing the video game in the lobby until my mom came and picked me up.

Or, I might have my memories wrong and I could be remembering MESSAGE FROM OUTER SPACE (AKA SWORDS OF THE SPACE ARK) 1981, which was a movie made from a Japanese TV show that re-used some of the footage from this one to tell a similar story. From the clips I've seen on YouTube that was is even worse than this one! (In OUTER SPACE they're finding glowing eggs rather than nuts, which sort of fits my memory better). I need to see that one in its entirety to be sure.

As for this movie... it's pretty "meh." The costumes are colorfully ridiculous, at least. And this is the only movie I've ever seen where they actually use "space" as an adjective (someone talks about being born after the last "space war" and being afraid of being thrown in the "space clink.") I didn't find it too hard to follow but there were too many subplots; I think that it may have played better if they'd written the Vic Morrow character out of it entirely.

I'd give it a generous 2/5.

[Trevor]

I remember walking out of the theater and playing the video game in the lobby until my mom came and picked me up.

You were fortunate to have videogames in your theater's lobby: if my hometown cinema manager caught us little ones loitering in the lobby, he would shout "Hey you: no hanging around! [Expletive deleted] off home!"   

Ahh: memories. 

[Pacman000]

! No longer available

Here's some thing that popped into my YouTube Suggested Videos thread today: the opening to Message From Space's TV show.

[Pacman000]

While browsing YouTube, I came across some music from Message From Space with a lot of Japanese comments. Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O7mOl5KkEw&t=82s

Ran a lot of them through Google Translate. Interesting stuff:

EDIT: Apparently Google won't let you link to their translator pages anymore.

[Alex]

Uhm... ok?

[Pacman000]

Yeah, saying "These comments are interesting" isn't much of a comment in-and-of itself. So I'll try to pick out a few things which caught my attention

A couple of commentators said the music was based on this:

Sorry...

[pacman000]

While browsing Amazon Prime a few days ago, I found the complete "Message From Space: Galactic Battle" TV series, with English subtitles. It's a sequel to the film, set generations later, after humanity's colonized the stars. The Gavanas return, & the new main characters have to free the 15th solar system.

Corny fun, with decent-but-dated FX. Scripts could've used a few extra drafts to smooth things out, like the movie.

If you like the movie, or other goofy space operas, the series is worth a try. It's fast paced, & there are only 27 episodes.

I've watched about 4; this is more of an announcement than a review.