I admit that I've never seen The Humanoid, another Italian Star Wars knock-off from 1979, starring Richard Kiel, Barbara Bach and Corinne Clery... but I desperately want to.
Looks like an interesting movie, although I'd never heard of it. I read a novel by Jack Williamson called The Humanoids, but I doubt there's any similarity. It was about robots trying to conquer mankind.
I've seen this one. It's probably the most visually plagiaristic thing that I've ever seen - there's an angled opening crawl, a (gold) Star Destroyer, a Darth Vader wannabe, a desert planet where people drive not-quite-flying cars, laser-based versions of ancient weapons (arrows instead of swords, though), monks with psychic powers, X-wing lookalikes, a turret scene in which they're shot down (and which plays out almost exactly like the turret scene in Star Wars, right down to the Han Solo-analogue behind the controls), and basically everything else from Star Wars that the makers could cram in.
That said, while it's definitely of a higher technical quality than Starcrash (which is a bit like saying that dog poop smells better than horse poop), the cinematography, acting, and general tone don't have half of the enthusiasm and energy that make that movie so enjoyable. It's a shame, really. It doesn't even have the kind of mildly interesting premise and setting that made Cosmos: War of the Planets watchable.
Looks like an interesting movie, although I'd never heard of it. I read a novel by Jack Williamson called The Humanoids, but I doubt there's any similarity. It was about robots trying to conquer mankind.
ReplyDeleteI've seen this one. It's probably the most visually plagiaristic thing that I've ever seen - there's an angled opening crawl, a (gold) Star Destroyer, a Darth Vader wannabe, a desert planet where people drive not-quite-flying cars, laser-based versions of ancient weapons (arrows instead of swords, though), monks with psychic powers, X-wing lookalikes, a turret scene in which they're shot down (and which plays out almost exactly like the turret scene in Star Wars, right down to the Han Solo-analogue behind the controls), and basically everything else from Star Wars that the makers could cram in.
ReplyDeleteThat said, while it's definitely of a higher technical quality than Starcrash (which is a bit like saying that dog poop smells better than horse poop), the cinematography, acting, and general tone don't have half of the enthusiasm and energy that make that movie so enjoyable. It's a shame, really. It doesn't even have the kind of mildly interesting premise and setting that made Cosmos: War of the Planets watchable.