INVASION OF THE NEPTUNE MEN (1961)
Tagline: None
(Sci-Fi, Action, Thank God for Alpha Electron Rockets) [G]
Note: This movie was never given an MPAA rating. If it came out today, it likely would have been a [G].
Sorry guys, we're idiots I guess.
In this one, a spaceship lands containing aliens from Neptune. They are quickly fought off by a hero named “Space Chief”, but after 2 nuclear explosions in the atmosphere, the defense of earth becomes a priority as a full-scale invasion of Neptune Men with the intention of taking over earth becomes increasingly imminent.
What really works in this movie is the epic space helmet designs we get for the Neptune men. Yes, they are goofy, but I absolutely love these things. The other thing that is pretty cool are the Neptune men’s spaceship designs in general. I also liked that when these aliens shoot you, you just disappear and leave a shadow in the shape of your body against the way. Space Chief’s car called “Space Greyhound” is also pretty rad, it looks like the Japanese version of the Bat-Mobile, it’s epic. I also love that Space Chief’s lasers sound like an 80s Atari 2600 game.
What goes wrong in this thing is just about everything else. I have never been a huge fan of movies with kids that seem to not be able to act, are expected to drive the film forward. As much as I love GAMERA movies for instance, for the most part, the kids bug the crap out of me. Now, if you have a kid that “can” act, that’s a different story. This movie does utilize some stock footage from other earlier films, but I don’t always hate that if you can do it fairly seamlessly.
Pacing wise it kind of sucks that the first half of this didn’t include more of Space Chief just kicking Neptune aliens in the teeth, because after the opening sequence, I really wanted to see more of that. It also seems pretty one of these kids sounds exactly like an adult trying to have a kid voice and it just comes across as sounding nuts in the English version.
If you are in the mood for a crackerjack box script and non-existent character development, with full cheese on top, this is your movie. Or maybe it’s not. Quite frankly it’s not. Even the cool stuff I mentioned is barely worth watching this movie for. I guess if Godzilla had shown up and started stomping on Neptune men, that would have improved this, but if you don’t introduce at least some decent storyline and character development, there are always going to be issues if you can’t distract us with some amazing looking monster or kaiju.
The quality of this movie is pretty decent for 1961 in spite of some of the reviews you might be reading. The major issues are actually with the bad dialog. The actual ideas behind the storyline aren’t terrible. We’ve got a hero, we’ve got Neptune aliens, we have lasers and nukes and invisible barriers and all that cool stuff, it’s just so poorly executed that it’s hard to stay focused even for this movie's short 74-minute run time.
I have to give this one a 3 out of 7 just because I did like the design work, but I would not advise anyone going into this expecting a mind-blowing sci-fi epic. This is more something you put on in the background on a Saturday morning when you are making breakfast or doing something else.
GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF TOEI COMPANY AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.
Comments
Post a Comment