Battle in Outer Space (1959)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Fresh and Exciting

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Blistering performances.

The nations of the Earth unite in a common cause to fight off an invader from outer space.The film is considered a loose or "nominal" sequel to "The Mysterians" (1957), jumping ahead several years to 1965, when Etsuko Shiraishi and Dr. Adachi, among others, are now heavily involved in the United Nations Space Research Center in Tokyo. The continuity is not important, though, and if someone did not see the earlier film they will not be confused in the least.Although not the first time "Godzilla" director Honda takes on space, a topic on the forefront of everyone's minds in the late 1950s, this is probably one of his better explorations of the theme. It is always interesting to see what movie creators thought space travel and space suits. This film was able to correctly predict a fair number of things, and even takes a crack at what walking on the moon would look like.Howard Thompson gave the film a generally positive review, stating, "The plot is absurd and is performed in dead earnest... the artwork is downright nifty, especially in the middle portion, when an earth rocket soars to the moon to destroy the palpitating missile base... the Japanese have opened a most amusing and beguiling bag of technical tricks, as death-dealing saucers whiz through the stratosphere... and the lunar landscape is just as pretty as it can be." I have nothing to add to what Thompson has said, other than to note that critics today would likely be even more favorable in retrospect -- the film holds up well and displays a sense of fun and imagination rarely seen today.

For a lot of us who were kids in the 60's, this movie may have only come on TV on Saturday Night at either 11, 12 Midnight or even worse-- the Late, Late, Late Movie at 2AM before the Station Signed-Off with the Test Pattern screaming that high pitched: "Oooooooooooooooooooooooo" And if we were kids, you probably only caught this movie by ACCIDENT and had to BEG your parent not to send you to bed. If you were lucky-- it was your Dad, and he would melt. If you were unlucky, it was Mom-- for whom space movies were trash-- and she just reached over and 'CLICK' And you NEVER saw this one again. Oh.. and guaranteed, if you DID manage to catch it on TV way back then-- 1) you only saw it in BLACK & WHITE! And 2) you only saw it CROPPED for the regular TUBE TV. So you NEVER saw the full WIDE-SCREEN Theatrical Movie version. And even better reason to rent the DVD today.Well, this guy was the George Lucas of his age. Yeah-- there were wires holding the ships up-- but remember, it was 1958-59. They didn't have Video Editing. Plus-- TV sets and Movies weren't that 'crisp' If you weren't Looking for the wires, you didn't see them. Plus-- if you see the Wires, google images for this movie and note the SIZE of the ships. This are not cheap plastic models. The Moon ships stand at least 5 feetWhat you DID see was Spaceships, Flying Saucers, Rayguns, and men in silver Spacesuits fighting Aliens on the Moon. What else could a Kid want? Fun part for people watching this thing Now: Aliens attack Earth. Response: Give Scientists RAYGUNS and send them to the moon.Think about it: They gave SCIENTISTS Rayguns and sent them to the Moon to Destroy the Aliens-- NOT TALK TO THEM.Scientists Get to Moon, and encounter a mob of spacesuited munchkin aliens pawing up the single Female crewmember in a lunar cave.Do they stop and think: "Let us attempt to Communicate with these advanced Aliens?" NO-- These Scientists are MURDEROUS. He Pulls gasping crew-woman away from those grasping four-fingered mitts, unlimbers his disintegrator rifle and (Point-- these aliens are UNARMED, BTW) and he MOWS THEM DOWN! Beyond that-- there's the Mumbo-Jumbo science-- How a Freeze Ray will create Anti-gravity for example.The fact that mysterious light rays can turn innocent scientists into Zombie Slaves-- and nobody gets alarmed when the scientist starts clutching his head and stumbling around Or the fact that on the moon, the Alien Mastermind has a FLEET of flying saucers under his claw-- but can only get a single Zombie Slave to do the task of blowing up the Earth Spaceships. And Tells him to HURRY! HURRY! But beyond that-- the spacebattles, the disintegrator rays, the Moonbase, the Moon Battles.If you're a Sci-Fi buff, put this one on when your friends are over on a rainy or cold winter Saturday Afternoon. Within its limitations, It's an exciting movie from the Age of Outer Space.

In the 1950s and 60s, quite a few Japanese sci-fi and horror films were sold to the US. Then, the studios chopped the films apart and inserted American actors into some of the scenes to supposedly make them more acceptable to the public. Perhaps this was true, but in all these cases you wish today that you could also see the original non-bastardized version as well. One of the most famous examples of this sort of film is the original "Godzilla"--where they added lots of footage of Raymond Burr saying and doing practically nothing of value! In fact, his pointless performance was parodied very cleverly on "Pinky & the Brain"...with Burr's character saying "...yes....yes...I see..." every time the camera cut to him! "Battle in Outer Space" was originally "Uchû Daisensô" but was sold to Columbia Pictures for American distribution and I assume, too, that changes were once again made for domestic distribution. Unlike many of these films, it has been unavailable for viewing due to the film's decomposition (the print turned red). Somehow, they've either restored it or found a decent copy, as recently it has finally been re-released on DVD as well as on local On Demand viewing--and I must say the glorious 1950s color is outstanding.The film begins with a UFO attack on an Earth space station orbiting our planet. Soon, UFOs are seen all over the planet and naturally the governments of the Earth (led by the Japanese) are organizing to combat this. But the scourge is much worse--aliens have also been kidnapping humans and implanting them with devices to control them! And, when you think it can't get any worse, the aliens set up a base on the Moon--presumptively to use for an eventual attack on the planet. All this occurs just in the first 20 minutes! Can the human race survive in an eventual battle in outer space?! If you compare this to other space films of the era, "Battle in Outer Space" is actually quite exceptional--and is probably among the best. However, with huge advances in technology since this film was made, today it all comes off as very quaint. But, don't dismiss it so quickly--as I said, for its time it's very good. The action sequences (especially those in space where you can't see all the wires!) and effects are Japanese 1950s robot cool. The biggest weakness in the film is in its narrative and characters--which are a tad bland.Thank goodness the Earth they had their flying weinermobiles! See the film and you'll know what I mean.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film. It is certainly paced slower than modern sci-fi movies, but the action moved along at a good pace nonetheless. The backgrounds, matte work, color and special effects were very impressive.The one conceivable flaw was that there were no stand out actors or personal relationships (no love interest as there was in the original Godzilla). This may have been intentional as the story meant to emphasize a global effort against a ruthless and cruel invader.) I would rate this on the upper scale of Toho's scifi efforts (anotehr under-rated, under-viewed film would be "H-Men").If you are a kaiju fan you will not be disappointed.