JLRVancouver 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.

Rainey Dawn 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

Leofwine_draca More butt-kicking action from Japanese superhero Starman, once again cobbled together from two episodes (three and four) of the 1950s television series SUPERGIANT. This time around the super-fast paced antics involve the invasion of Earth by a race of evil salamander men (!) who use cool-looking UFOs to send sound waves down to Earth and kill people, spread a deadly disease capable of destroying the human race within days, and of course go around kidnapping kids and scientists. Starman spends the film rescuing those kidnapped and fighting off the Salamander Men by using some acrobatic manoeuvres! It appears that the producers had hired a troupe of acrobatics for filming of this material, as lengthy scenes are set in a theatre showing a kooky dance routine (mind-boggling, it really is) and later many of the fight scenes involve silly flips and jumps through the air for no other reason. Is this really how aliens fight?Any plot exposition seems to have been wiped out other than cursory introductions, leaving a movie that brims over with action, action, and more action. Sadly, the fight scenes seem more like dancing than fighting and are of a lesser quality than in the previous ATOMIC RULERS OF THE WORLD. Still, Starman packs a wallop, and the aliens themselves are a well-designed menace with imaginative-looking and creative makeup, turnip-headed demons if they indeed are! The supporting characters are the usual stiff moustachioed scientists and the obnoxiously annoying children, including the resident child with pigtails and glasses. Why do they never die in these films? Action is what INVADERS FROM SPACE offers and, even if the special effects are not quite up to the task, it certainly entertains on this front. Highlights include kids hanging from ropes over pits of burning acid; Starman chasing a killer UFO through the skies and kicking the reptile backsides of those inside; genuinely disturbing laughing human/alien hybrids, looking like the Joker; an alien exploding underwater (!); dozens of fight scenes, weirdo alien bases in the swamps, even some extraterrestrial action is thrown in to keep things fresh and exciting. Watch out for the wacky High Council at the beginning of the film, complete with bizarro aliens and weirdo robots, and watch in amazement as Starman spends most of the film flying through the air – his feet barely touch the ground in this adventure. Senseless fun the way we like it – and a production designed just so that you can say "they don't make 'em like this anymore".

Woodyanders A bunch of pernicious salamander men aliens from the planet Kulimon in the Moffit Galaxy plan on taking over Earth by unleashing a horrible plague on mankind. It's up to valiant superhero Starman from the Emerald Planet to save the human race before it's too late. Once again, this gloriously ridiculous hogwash eschews standard conventions of logic and coherence thanks to the fact that this slapdash feature was cobbled together from several episodes of a TV series. As a direct result of this, an absurdly solemn narrator works furious overtime in a desperate attempt to give the jumbled plot a modicum of cohesion. Moreover, the lovably rinky-dink (markedly less than) special effects, cruddy dubbing, strenuously protracted balletic fight set pieces (the salamander guys do all sorts of crazy back flips, cartwheels, and somersaults while mixing it up with Starman!), and such inspired wacky touches as the salamander beings disguising themselves as an avant-garde dance troupe, the evil extraterrestrials shooting killer rays out of their mouths (!), and a mysterious nurse who transforms herself into a grotesque hag witch all greatly enhance the considerable unintentional hilarity. An absolute dippy hoot.