So the other day my buddy and I got together for our monthly beer, cola, pizza and movie night. After regaling him with stories of my utter failure in life, work and love we selected this movie. I had never seen it, though I knew the Queen song of course, and for him it had been quite a while.
It was.....quite the experience, to put it mildly. This flick is utterly bonkers. The acting is atrocious at times, especially the lead Hawkman (yes you read that correctly) who clearly doesn't take it serious; the set design and costumes are way, way over the top (it looks like colorblind aliens are holding a gay pride/carnival where everyone looks as ridiculous as is humanly...well...I guess...alienly possible; the editing and directing falls and fails and flails all over the place; the plot, if I may use that word ever so boldly, is so full with plot holes large enough to swallow a pyramid and coincidences that makes you want to throw stuff at the screen.
Yet......is this movie a prime example of "so bad it becomes good again"? You know what, I'm bound to think it is. I was fully entertained and flabbergasted along the way. You can see what's going to happen from a mile away but for once it didn't bother me. It's just so over the top, harmless, trashy, cliché ridden, camp, low budget with big dreams that I cannot help but approve of this movie.
Sure, a few annoyances. That may seem an endless list for a movie like this but since I like campy movies and its worst attributes actually make you laugh the most and that's never a bad thing, only a few things stand out.
Flash is such a goodie, softie, plastic hero it doesn't always work in his favor. I also didn't like how basically everyone (Flash, the Emperor, the princess, Dale) all fall in love within two minutes. The movie makes it seem (I don't know the comics) as if Flash and Dale are total strangers, meeting on the plane, yet she professes her love for him almost immediately. The Emperor falls for Dale the second he sees her. The Princess, well, she kisses just about everyone, but she's Ming's daughter and nearly engaged, but one look at Flash's Goldilocks and she aids a revolution.
I also didn't care much for the mad scientist guy, who basically kidnaps them but also forms a strong bond; who isn't the slightest bit amazed at the alien cultures but does seem to feel superior; who gets an extremely high dose of brainwash that does nothing without any explanation.
I also would have liked a little more Queen since they took the music department under their wings. I like the titular song but we get little else. Oh yeah, for some reason the aliens play the Bridal March but it's the Brian May version.
Richard O'Brien is severely underused. Max von Sydow appears, half way through the movie, to have decided he doesn't want to be there anymore. I also didn't really care for Timothy Dalton's character's sudden turn to Flash's side. Some scenes appear to be missing, most noticeably the capture of the Princess by the general guy (though he is pretty cool, sort of Doctor Doom's gay cousin).
Worst of all is, of course, the American Football scene. The chapter is even called just that, making it the odd one out in a series of bombastic chapter titles. It's actually slightly embarrassing seeing him make a play as if one the field, and even more embarrassing that all of Ming's subordinate leaders seem to help him. Hawkman again does worse here, disabling people and then looking innocently away, even though it's blatantly obvious, utterly without motivation, completely out of the blue, and rather ridiculous to oppose the Emperor openly and then do all but whistle innocently.
CONCLUSION
Well it was definitely an experience and I must say I laughed or goggled most of the time. Sure there are more problems than I could count and sometimes I hoped Flash would meat his Maker, but this movie almost gleefully bathes in campy nonsense and as such cannot really be judged by the same standards as normal movies, if there is such a thing. In the end, even if it comes rather too swift, I did enjoy it more than I disliked it, and I was glad to have watched it...I guess. Flawed beyond even what Ed Wood would consider a bad movie it has a harmless charm, and attracts through sheer and colorful weirdness. In conclusion, I feel this movie should be on every serious movie buff's menu, just so you can see for yourself what happens when a flimsy script, horrible acting, charming chaos, bight colors and a one-song soundtrack meet in a drug induced delirium in a misty back alley and is then put on a disk for your pleasure. An objective review would conclude with a 2/10 but I'm not about the delicate details of movie making, I review solely on the basis of how much it either moved or amused me. It didn't move me, but it also didn't move me closer to my inevitable suicide. An experience. 7/10
It was.....quite the experience, to put it mildly. This flick is utterly bonkers. The acting is atrocious at times, especially the lead Hawkman (yes you read that correctly) who clearly doesn't take it serious; the set design and costumes are way, way over the top (it looks like colorblind aliens are holding a gay pride/carnival where everyone looks as ridiculous as is humanly...well...I guess...alienly possible; the editing and directing falls and fails and flails all over the place; the plot, if I may use that word ever so boldly, is so full with plot holes large enough to swallow a pyramid and coincidences that makes you want to throw stuff at the screen.
Yet......is this movie a prime example of "so bad it becomes good again"? You know what, I'm bound to think it is. I was fully entertained and flabbergasted along the way. You can see what's going to happen from a mile away but for once it didn't bother me. It's just so over the top, harmless, trashy, cliché ridden, camp, low budget with big dreams that I cannot help but approve of this movie.
Sure, a few annoyances. That may seem an endless list for a movie like this but since I like campy movies and its worst attributes actually make you laugh the most and that's never a bad thing, only a few things stand out.
Flash is such a goodie, softie, plastic hero it doesn't always work in his favor. I also didn't like how basically everyone (Flash, the Emperor, the princess, Dale) all fall in love within two minutes. The movie makes it seem (I don't know the comics) as if Flash and Dale are total strangers, meeting on the plane, yet she professes her love for him almost immediately. The Emperor falls for Dale the second he sees her. The Princess, well, she kisses just about everyone, but she's Ming's daughter and nearly engaged, but one look at Flash's Goldilocks and she aids a revolution.
I also didn't care much for the mad scientist guy, who basically kidnaps them but also forms a strong bond; who isn't the slightest bit amazed at the alien cultures but does seem to feel superior; who gets an extremely high dose of brainwash that does nothing without any explanation.
I also would have liked a little more Queen since they took the music department under their wings. I like the titular song but we get little else. Oh yeah, for some reason the aliens play the Bridal March but it's the Brian May version.
Richard O'Brien is severely underused. Max von Sydow appears, half way through the movie, to have decided he doesn't want to be there anymore. I also didn't really care for Timothy Dalton's character's sudden turn to Flash's side. Some scenes appear to be missing, most noticeably the capture of the Princess by the general guy (though he is pretty cool, sort of Doctor Doom's gay cousin).
Worst of all is, of course, the American Football scene. The chapter is even called just that, making it the odd one out in a series of bombastic chapter titles. It's actually slightly embarrassing seeing him make a play as if one the field, and even more embarrassing that all of Ming's subordinate leaders seem to help him. Hawkman again does worse here, disabling people and then looking innocently away, even though it's blatantly obvious, utterly without motivation, completely out of the blue, and rather ridiculous to oppose the Emperor openly and then do all but whistle innocently.
CONCLUSION
Well it was definitely an experience and I must say I laughed or goggled most of the time. Sure there are more problems than I could count and sometimes I hoped Flash would meat his Maker, but this movie almost gleefully bathes in campy nonsense and as such cannot really be judged by the same standards as normal movies, if there is such a thing. In the end, even if it comes rather too swift, I did enjoy it more than I disliked it, and I was glad to have watched it...I guess. Flawed beyond even what Ed Wood would consider a bad movie it has a harmless charm, and attracts through sheer and colorful weirdness. In conclusion, I feel this movie should be on every serious movie buff's menu, just so you can see for yourself what happens when a flimsy script, horrible acting, charming chaos, bight colors and a one-song soundtrack meet in a drug induced delirium in a misty back alley and is then put on a disk for your pleasure. An objective review would conclude with a 2/10 but I'm not about the delicate details of movie making, I review solely on the basis of how much it either moved or amused me. It didn't move me, but it also didn't move me closer to my inevitable suicide. An experience. 7/10