Supersonic Man (1979)/War Of The Robots (1978/VCI Double
Feature DVD)
Picture:
D Sound: D Extras: D Films: C+
For a
briefer period and because it was not as broad to rip-off, several producers
tried to cash in on Superman The Movie
(1978) as much as Star Wars (1977),
making a few bad or unintentionally funny films along the way. VCI has issued a double feature of both kinds
of knock-offs.
Supersonic Man: It's a bird... it's a plane... it's
who!?! When evil Dr. Gulik (Cameron
Mitchell) kidnaps a scientist and plans to takeover and rule the world with the
'ultimate force', he didn't count on a blue-skinned, red costumed alien hero in
his plans. Mild manor reporter Paul is
secretly an alien sent to watch over the human race to protect its people,
whenever he speaks into his watch "May the Great force of the Galaxy be
with me." He transforms and becomes
nearly invincible hero to stop anything, Supersonic Man. This 1979 Spanish production barley made U.S. release,
but you can see it for yourself now.
War of the Robots: A dieing alien/cyborg/robot race
kidnaps two human scientist who are on the verge of finding out the secret of
life. Captain Jack and his crew now must
chase after them to rescue them, and bring them back before a doomsday device
is set to explode on Earth... but their
trip on the way goes awry, they are force to land to make repairs and they
meet another alien race and discover something even more startling. Can Captain Jack and his team stop the aliens,
rescue the scientists and save the Earth in time as well? This 1978 release was made in Italy (in
something called Telecolor) and stars Antonio Sabato Sr. as his star was
declining and he did B-movies; a far cry from Grand Prix (1966), but as wacky as any Corman film, so its DVD
arrival is timely.
These films were created when everyone was behind
on visual effects and far before digital video arrived, even competing with big
productions like Star Trek – The Motion Picture (1979, or so they thought) and maybe
even parody them... but never the less, the are a show of example of Sci-Fi
films before there was computer graphic or any special effects. You could see superheroes, aliens, spaceships,
special effects have come a long way since then. You could tell from the digital quality the
films were transferred from VHS, much of film had the grainy texture of
older films however.
It was during the late 70s the space program had some of it greatest
popularity and achievements though it was soon to see itself winding down for
outright travel, but we NASA was still sending satellites to nearby planets,
the early beginnings of the international space station was revving up and the
space shuttle was late. But all was
powered by the same questions. Is there any intelligent life
out there? How far will mankind reach
into space? Will he ever go to other planets or stars one day? Dreamers, scientists, idealists, came to
answer some of these questions some of these films. The films not only entertained but showed the
spirit and imaginations of the time, as well as the fear of nuclear
technologies and aliens of the time.
- Ricky Chiang
