JLRVancouver This fusion of episodes 3 and 4 of "Space Giant" finds the Japan's man of steel, in his see-through and suggestively padded costume, battling Salamander Men from the Planet Kulimon in the Moffit galaxy (I kid you not). The invaders have the ability to change their appearance (or, sometimes, most of their appearance) and are spreading a deadly contagion by disguising themselves as an avant-garde dance troupe. Weird beyond belief, the film is full of acrobatic 'fight' scenes in which none of the kicks or punches seem to make contact but that include lots of back flips and cart wheels. At one point children are pursued by a Kulimonian disguised as a nurse (a creepy scene) who then seems to turn into a cackling witch. While much more lively than the leaden Atomic Rulers (the first Starman movie), there are some tedious moments (e.g. the flying saucer chase scene) and the special effects are laughable. I don't know how much has been lost in translation, but apparently the 'Salamander Men' were actually 'kappa', a Japanese mythological water sprite (which fits their look but not the Moffit Galaxy backstory). There may be other cultural tropes that I am missing (at times the Salamander Men make-up resembles 'slit-mouth', a motif that occurs in Japanese horror). The film is hard-to-rate, being a definite 10 for fans of weird cinema but probably unwatchable for most everyone else.

benjaminweber Out of the four films edited together from the Japanese television series, this one is by far the best. While the costumes look fairly basic in places, there are also frequent moments where the costume design suitably capture the overall creepy atmosphere of the film. The sound works well in helping to establish atmosphere, and while a traditional story structure still isn't possible due to being formed from multiple TV episodes, there is an overall plot and several cases of setting up a climax that actually pays off. An additional bonus is there seems to have been more effort into creating the fight scenes, with better choreography and better editing, giving a more convincing appearance than the usual festival of minions throwing a punch, missing and consequently falling over.In conclusion, if you're going to watch the Starman films, watch this one last. Otherwise the others will not live up to expectation!

Rainey Dawn I personally love to see the theater dance fighting and this film has that... some of the best scenes in the film to me. I also love some of the eerie imagery that we see in this film - it's almost to the point of a horror film. What's lacking to me just a little tiny bit is the story that needed just a little bit more pizazz to me - the on screen visuals and dance fighting has quite a bit of it though, that's very nice.Here we have Starman (a Japanese superhero) that is saving Earth from the evil salamander men! I prefer this movie over the Starman film "Evil Brain from Outer Space (1965)" and I liked that film too. Really fun movies if you ask me.I acquired this film from the Sci-Fi Invasion 50-Pack and I must say I'm glad they added it. I enjoyed the movie.7/10

BA_Harrison Hard to believe, perhaps, but before director Teruo Ishii turned to the sleaze and violence of pinku cinema he was director of children's TV series Sûpâ jaiantsu (Super Giant) in which Ken Utsui played Starman, a humanoid alien with incredible powers (well, he can fly with the help of a very visible harness) who is sworn to protect the human race from danger. In Invaders From Space, a feature cobbled together for the US market from several episodes of the series, Starman battles the evil salamander men of Kulimon (sp?) who release a deadly disease in Japan as part of their evil plan for world domination.The film opens on a planet 2 billion miles away where a council of incredibly daft looking aliens elect to send Starman to Earth; if the rest of the film was this unintentionally funny, I was in for a grand time. Sadly, despite the equally amusing introduction of the first salamander man, Invaders from Space quickly descended into tedium, a disjointed, episodic adventure with extremely repetitious fight scenes between Starman and his scaly foes, most of which look more like elaborate dance routines than desperate battles to the death.And talking of dance, let's not forget the unnecessary avant-garde number in a theatre where the salamanders are posing as stage performers. Or the bit where several supposedly cute Japanese kids find themselves threatened in the woods by the athletic aliens busting their moves. I guess if modern dance is your thing, there's a remote chance that you might find this interesting, but I found myself seriously struggling to stay awake.