B Movie Review-Battle Beyond the Stars

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This film came out in 1980 and is inspired by Seven Samurai in 1977, George Lucas creator of Star Wars was influenced by. There is knowledge of film history because the planet Kira is tribute to the director Akira Kurasawa. Also films such as Magnificent Seven because the story follows the same plot of a army being built to defend farms. Roger Corman is a huge exploitation film maker and wanted to keep the budget low, It is arguable that the fact it is a b movie is what makes is because of this and anything that at the time is popular cult film is taken on and mix matched to try and get credit for a similar story or movie. But when its on a budget it doesn't quite always end up as good as anticipated. For example the script was originally 160 pages long and Roger Corman literally fired and ripped pages out he deemed as unnecessary. 

The film is regarded as quite the rip-off due to its unmistakable similarities to very specific themes like Star Trek 2 The Wrath of Khan and the effects. 

" Wonderfully campy sci-fi version of 'The Magnificent Seven'.It even features Robert Vaughn as the same lost-his-nerve gunslinger he played in the original!." (IMDb,2018) 

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A redeeming quality would be that despite the limitations the crew who made the sets and miniatures were very talented, in fact James Cameron was even involved. The set included cheap materials that only great artists could make look good with spray paint and imagination that has got to be a good quality.

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A redeeming quality of this film is definitely the miniatures and variety of ships like Star Trek they used this method. This is a redeeming quality as there was creativity despite the amount of tributes to things like Galaxy Quest. The main ship is personified as female breasts and takes science fiction a step further for example in Star Trek and Star Wars the ship is always referred to as a she but this ship is a literal she. Nell talks. Its also not all that strange to see something of sexual explicitness either as science fiction has been in that area. The Crew were friends based on similar interests. There was Seven Main Ships then there was all the other less important ships. 

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The Live Action Sets were done very well and just like the Matte Painting/Environments had a lot of atmosphere Despite some of the sets looking very old sci-fi some props and parts of the set actually look quite modern and like they would hold up well.

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The Acting was terrible however some of the designs for the characters/costumes are also quite modern or an interesting choice. The mix of genre shows and the detail is actually quite spectacular. For example the Machinery on the Doctor. Although this is quite dramatic the other robots are actually rather simple not much detail is shown alternatively unless you see the mannequins insides but it still gets enough across to recognise. The Costumes achieve the look of a hybrid genre and Star Wars is hybrid.

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Another redeeming quality would be the Art in for example the use of the Matte Painting. The atmosphere and landscapes are good. The techniques used to show more with less. They have a surreal yet science fiction, fantasy feeling it almost has a nostalgic feeling for all the people who have watched Films of similarity.

Bibliography

IMDb. (2018). Battle Beyond the Stars (1980). [online] Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080421 

YouTube. (2018). BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS miniature effects. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWmaUmNgWqM