Flash AAA-AAAA !!!! (Flash Gordon (DVD))

Member Name: dingo01

Product:	Flash Gordon (DVD)
Date:	02/03/01 (50 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It has amazing atmosphere - feels and sounds like what mongo is depicted as being.

Disadvantages: Occasional falling man looks like an action figure falling!

Flash Gordon - just like the traditional stories, is a top American Football player transported to Mongo by the nutty Dr Hans Zarkov, along with Dale Arden, the three of them attempt to save the Earth before the moon crashes into it.

This of course was planned to be a massive blockbuster movie - with its array of stars, featuring Topol, Brian Blessed, Max Von Sydow, Timothy Dalton, Richard O'Brian and even Peter Duncan from the Blue Peter crew of the time!

I went to see this way back when I was about 5 years old! I was so excited to see it, I remember going to the kids at school the next day and pretending that I was riding the Hawkman rocketcycle and I drew a picture to show my teacher - Flash Gordon holding a big sword -WOW!

Ahem!

Twenty years on and I still love the film, possibly more so than I did then - the reason, its the atmosphere. The Queen soundtrack - seen by many as very 'cheesy' helps the movie flow - even through the slow bits - which in fact are very few. The amazing multicolored sets and adventurous costumes all make it an enjoyable experience. As soon as you see the imperial vortex, you begin to get the feeling that you are being guided along the path to another world, as they are - only to be disturbed by the Imperial guard - like troops and the interesting gun that fires hands to restrain prisoners.

The part of Flash himself was played just like the one that Buster Crabbe played in the old Saturday morning shows - hero like, not really much of an idea of whats going on around him but with one notion on his mind - "gotta save the Earth".

I find it interesting to see how he uses football terms and tactics in a lot of the things he says - for instance, when he is taking the Tree Man test against Prince Barin (Dalton), he uses the term, "Second Down" and every time he tries to convince potential allies to join him, he uses the term "Team Up".
r>A lot of people would obviously look at this film and say - "well its an obvious rip off of Star Wars". This is true to an extent, for instance, the guards, although sounding pig like, are similar in idea to the stormtroopers in the original Star Wars film (although a bit stupid). Personally, I wouldn't really try to rate one over the other - especially as Flash Gordon came first (the Buster Crabbe stuff that is!)

Of course what makes this film very special to me is that it was also the very film that introduced me to Sci-fi - and then there was no going back!