Warning from Space

Rating:
Summary: "There is only evil in power used destructively."
Review: Originally released in Japan as Uchûjin Tokyo ni arawaru and then exported to parts unknown (well, here, in the US mainly, possibly as revenge over that whole atomic bomb thing), Warning from Space (1956) aka The Cosmic Man Appears in Tokyo aka The Mysterious Satellite aka Space Men Appear in Tokyo aka Spacepeople Appear in Tokyo aka Unknown Satellite Over Tokyo (whew!) is basically 88 minutes of a lot of ho-hum boredom. I'm not kidding, I literally fell asleep during this film. The last time that happened was during the wretchedly awful CGI bloated crud picture Octopus (2000). Am I saying Warning from Space is as bad as Octopus? No, but in terms of a celluloid sleeping pill, the two are certainly comparable.

Okay, so what's the movie about? Well, let's see...strange goings on over the skies of Tokyo which appear to be meteors or asteroids or some such thing are actually flying saucers containing very odd alien beings who are basically man-sized starfish with one giant eye where you'd think their stomachs would be...it seems the aliens are from a planet whose orbit is tied to Earth's, and they've come because there's a runaway planet headed for a collision course with the Earth, marking it for destruction, along with their own world. Since their survival is tied to ours, they've decided to try and help us, combining their technology with our...good old fashion Earth work ethic? Really, I am unsure why they even bothered to come here instead to just dealing with the problems themselves. I mean, if they can master interplanetary travel, what the heck do they need with us anyway (actually, we do find out later)? Okay, so the only problem, besides the huge errant planet hurtling through space set to squash us good, is their odd appearance that keeps freaking people out whenever they try to make contact, so they decide to utilize their transmutation machine, which actually changes the aliens' appearance so they can look like us. So anyway, the aliens plan is to get the Earth to use all of its' nuclear weapons, launch them at the rogue planet, and hopefully divert it's course. Seem plausible? Maybe back in the 50's it was...does the plan work? I guess you'll just have to watch and see...

So what did I like about this movie? Well, the starfish alien creatures certainly were different, but given that they used a machine to make them look like humans, we didn't see much of them. The special effects we actually pretty good, taken in context with the time the movie was made. And I especially liked the huge chunk of exposition about 50 minutes into the movie that basically defined all the pertinent elements within the film up until that point, disguised as a radio broadcast. This was particularly useful as my attention tended to drift a due to boredom and the fact that I fell asleep for like 10 minutes or so and didn't feel like going back and watching what I missed.

Okay, what didn't I like about the film? Well, it ran too long, in my opinion. The 88-minute run time could have been effectively reduced by about 20 minutes and we would have not lost anything important to the story. And let me ask you this...why does it seem like nearly every Japanese movie I've seen has to have some extremely clumsy, awkward, nerdy-type guy with an excruciatingly nasally, annoying voice to act as a sort of comic relief? In this case, the character presents himself as some type of junior reporter type you'd expect to have the nickname of `Scoop' or some such nonsense. I know certain things are universal, but this kind of `comedy' is lost on me. The good news is that character has a very short amount of screen time. At least the cinematic gods were kind in that aspect. Also, proportional to the running time, the story just moved along way too slowly. There were a couple of odd musical segments in the film, but they weren't overly emphasized, thankfully, and kept pretty short. Certain elements of the plot didn't really make sense like if you're an alien and you're changing your appearance to blend in and make contact with specific Earthlings, would you really choose the appearance of seemingly famous pop star? Oh well...also, did you know there was such a thing as the Supreme Headquarters of the World Council? Apparently there is...I have no idea what their responsibilities involve, but I do know they seem to be able to suspend activities in launching artificial satellites into orbit.

The quality of the print provided by Alpha Video on this disc is pretty poor, but watchable, especially given the price of the DVD. The movie is in color, but the quality of the color is very poor, most likely due to color in movies was as new and not yet perfected feature back when this movie originally came out. The audio is pretty much in line with the quality of the picture, but again, given the cost of the DVD, I wasn't really surprised. Not much in the way of special features, with the exception of a listing of other releases from Alpha Video including many pictures of the covers of said releases. I give Alpha credit on the marketing of their low budget releases. They may not put a lot of money inside the DVDs, but they sure provide glossy and attractive covers for their releases.

Cookieman108


Rating:
Summary: Who Knew Starfish Were So Smart?
Review: This is a little known Japanese oddity from 1956 originally released in Japan as 'Uchujin Tokyo Ni Awawaru' ('Unknown Satellite Over Tokyo'.) I had never heard of this one, but Amazon recommended it to me, doubtlessly due to my previous B-Movie purchases. I am really glad I bought this obscure little film.

The plot concerns a close call with a runaway planet on a collision course with the Earth, and the space travelers that look like giant starfish with one big blue eye that help save humanity from the peril. This film is serious, and most of it is well made considering the special effects capabilities available fifty years ago. There are a few places where the plot falters (for example why bother to evacuate Tokyo when the pending collision will destroy the whole Earth?), but overall it is an interesting mid-fifties sci-fi classic, with additional and unexpected bonuses, such as a musical stage show interlude, which seems out of place, but adds to the fun.

For enthusiasts of old B-Movies this is a relatively unknown treasure at a very affordable price. The alien costumes and dialogue alone are worth the price of admission!

Rating:
Summary: Who Knew?
Review: Where has this film been? The conversion to English is great, leaving the film largely intact. The print/color is poor. An early attempt at colorization. Still, it's a great movie, easily ranking with the original Japanese version of Godzilla.