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Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)
Shout! Factory
Blu-ray Disc Released: 7/12/2011
All Ratings out of
Movie:
1/2
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Review by Mike Long, Posted on 7/8/2011
Today, we like to make fun of The Asylum, the production company responsible for direct-to-video (or Syfy) titles like Alien vs. Hunter, Transmorphers, The Terminators, and I am Omega. While many companies rip-off more popular, mainstream films, few do it as blatantly as The Asylum. However, they did originate this trend. Half-a-century ago, Hollywood legend Roger Corman was making low-budget knock-offs of famous films. This became Corman's trademark, and the titles/ideas were often more interesting than the movies themselves. As we all know, when Star Wars was released in 1977, it redefined movies. It also inspired everyone to try and make a science-fiction movie. One could almost hear Corman's gears at work (taking a break from making Jaws rip-offs to focus on this project) as he tackled this. Let's see, "What's another words for 'wars'?" And that's probably how Battle Beyond the Stars was born.
Shad (Richard Thomas) leads a simple existence amongst his peaceful people on their isolated planet. One day, space bad guy Sador (John Saxon) arrives and informs the populous that he will be back soon to take their harvest. Shad volunteers to go find help, and soon he finds himself piloting an old space-ship. After visiting a creepy robot-laden satellite, where he meets Nanelia (Darlanne Fluegel), Shad travels the galaxy looking for mercenaries who will help his cause. One this journey, he meets a cowboy from Earth (George Peppard), a female warrior (Sybil Danning), a wanted man (Robert Vaughn), a lizard-man (Morgan Woodward) and a group of hive-mind aliens. Shad and his people must now band with these strangers in order to defend their homeworld.
Battle Beyond the Stars was far from the only Star Wars rip-off, but it's probably the only one where people say, "Is that the one with the spaceship that has boobs?" Yes, that's the one. And actually, when you look at it, Battle Beyond the Stars isn't a Star Wars rip-off. Yes, the success of Star Wars drove Corman to look into making a movie with spaceships and aliens, but, according to the Blu-ray Disc box, he admits that the movie's story was taken from Akira Kurosawa's 1954 film Seven Samurai. (This is interesting because George Lucas has acknowledged that Star Wars was influenced by Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress. Also, now that I think about, A Bug's Life has a story which is similar to Seven Samurai.) However, Battle Beyond the Stars really reminded me of Star Trek. The various spaceships and various aliens, coupled with the marauding space villain harassing peaceful villagers felt just like something out of an episode of that classic sci-fi show. You could show people certain clips from Battle Beyond the Stars, especially the hive-mind aliens, and tell them that it was from a lost episode of Star Trek and they would believe you.
Influences aside, one thing is for sure, Battle Beyond the Stars isn't a very good movie, and I'll bet that there were people who went to see it back in 1980 hoping for a Star Wars-like experience who were angered and bewildered by what they saw. I'm sure that some would call this movie campy fun, but that's just ignoring the fact that this is a cheap and boring movie. Despite the fact that it was an expensive movie by Corman's standards, the film's low-budget nature is undeniable. The hive-mind aliens look as if they've just wandered in from a high-school play and you don't have to be the most alert viewer to see that several shots are used more than once. What baffles me is how someone as notably thrifty as Corman would allow a movie like this to run for 103 minutes. Not only because longer movies cost more, but because you can't get as many showings in per day at the cinema.
Don't let the presence of gifted screenwriter John Sayles and a host of familiar faces fool you, Battle Beyond the Stars is Grade A schlock, but not the enjoyable kind. Other than the fact that Shad wants to recruit mercenaries, there's really no story and the movie never achieves any narrative flow. There's little character development and I couldn't tell when the movie was taking place. (I guess if there's an Earthling amongst all of these aliens, it's the distant future.) The outer space battle scenes are incredibly repetitive and a bit confusing, as all of the spaceships tend to blend together...save for the one with boobs. This one is really only for Corman completists, for is you go in expecting the kind of fun found in other projects like Piranha, you're going to be disappointed.
Battle Beyond the Stars probably isn't at the top of art director James Cameron's resume on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Shout! Factory. The film has been letterboxed at 1.85:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 19 Mbps. Given that this movie is 31 years old, the transfer looks pretty good. The image is sharp and clear for the most part, showing only traces of grain (save for some shots which look like stock footage or "borrowed" shots) and there are only minor defects from the source material. The colors look good, although they could have been brighter. The image is never overly dark or bright. A hint of softness creeps into the image at time, weakening the level of detail. The Disc offers a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 4.0 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. For a re-built track (presumably from mono or, at best, stereo) this one offers good stereo effects, as the laser blasts are easily heard from the left and right front channels. Surround sound effects are subtle, but we can hear the spaceships going by. I didn't detect any significant subwoofer effects.
The Battle Beyond the Stars Blu-ray Disc contains several extras. We begin with an AUDIO COMMENTARY from Executive Producer Roger Corman and Writer John Sayles. This is followed by a second COMMENTARY from Assistant Production Manager Gale Ann Hurd. "The Man Who Would Be Shad" (15 minutes) (the on-screen title is "His Name Was Shad") is a modern-day interview with Richard Thomas, who discusses his career and specifically his work on Battle Beyond the Stars. "Space Opera on a Shoestring" (33 minutes) (the on-screen title is "Shoestring Space Opera") is a making-of featurette which features comments from Alec Gillis, Dennis Skotak, Robert Skotak, Allan Holzman, and several others who talk about the challenge of creating a sci-fi epic on a Roger Corman budget. We see some behind-the-scene stills and some production art. We get a TRAILER for the film, as well as a RADIO SPOT. The STILL GALLERY offers standard publicity shots, while the PRODUCTION PHOTOS gallery contains on-set pictures. The final extra is a gallery of poster art for the film.
Review by Mike Long. Copyright 2011.