Atomic Rulers

We're all familiar with the man of steel who fights for truth and justice the American way! However, the infamous Starman is a different story. This is only one of the few movies that currently exist featuring the Japanese superhero who saves the world from certain doom. Now consider this: Starman is not in bold and brilliant form compared to those DC Comics you're reading. It is a vintage trip back about 40+ years ago when superheroes were meant to amuse proud audiences at a Saturday afternoon matinee. Today, a new generation of viewers who may ever get a chance to see this, will see how weird the costumes and sets appear, plus the way Starman fights evildoers. This is probably the best feature of Starman movies as an endless horde of bad guys creates long continuous battles that make it more fun-filled than Superman, but it has its repetition. The outcome is the same where a superhero struggles his way to the end and wins, and it's also ultimately repetitive when our hero does the same things over and over again in each film. This one, ATOMIC RULERS, is more campier than the other Starman movie, ATTACK FROM SPACE, which was close to instant sci-fi. Most of the time, it has nothing to do with saving Earth from peril. A lot of "B" movies such as this rely on useless stock footage to make for a full production. Since this was a Japanese creation, it stood out as fascinating for its time. Although it's still strange, it's no worse than THE PUMAMAN. I'm not certain if anyone is willing to accept movies like this today. Leave those up to the old coot crowd who saw them in their younger generations. The motion picture industry may not have changed, but the times sure have! Whether young or old, if you are in serious desperation for an outdatedly campy experience, then I, Jason, can't fully blame you for that!

Another Starman episode. I have the same criticism. The bad guys are so incompetent. Starman is too powerful. No matter what anyone does, he simply stands there and takes it. It's just a series of silly fights with him posturing. If it weren't for the kids being in danger, I can't imagine that he would have to even think about bringing down the evildoers. It's very cartoon like. The fights and the violence are bloodless and boring, and the enemies talk in a bragging way. I imagine this was popular at one time. The kids are the heroes and are upheld by their hero. They get into trouble so he is left to pull his punches once in a while. Not much worth commenting about.

Honestly I enjoyed this movie. It was great fun to watch, but I still have the common sense that it's a piece of crap. This original Japanese superhero made exclusively for this film, is the most ridiculous idea ever. The movie takes place in 1964 japan with an alien race attempting to rule the planet earth. A nearby alien race, notices the nuclear yes nuclear threat from the other alien species. So they send their mightiest warrior of peace... Starman! to save the human race. They hand him some device that permits him to fly and understand human languages and stuff like that. The name is lame, so are his powers and special effects of the movie, but that's what makes it so great. Still the acting is terrible and the dubbing does'nt help. I received the film in a 50 movie pack so I really had no other way to watch the film. I doubt it would have been much better. There are a lot of fighting sequences all poorly done. The film has an anti-nuclear feel which keeps it from feeling really out-dated. The film's hero reminds me of Gamera just without the saber teeth, fire breath, hunger for fire, and rocket propulsion flight out of his shell. I guess it's the whole fact that he's a friend of all children. Which I guess makes it more of a kids film now-a-days but it was placed in a film pack with a label that says, For Mature Audiences. If your looking for a movie to laugh at this one is preferably your best bet. 2/10

"The Earth is threatened with atomic destruction if the people of Mirapolia (sic) are not allowed to rule the planet. Observers from a distant planet, fat off in space, have been observing Earth and see the peril it's (sic) facing. Hoping to offer aid to the citizens of Earth, the benevolent aliens send their champion Starman to face off against the leaders of Mirapolia (it's correctly spelled Merapolia) and take care of their atomic weapons," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.

Ken Utsui (as Sûpâ Jaiantsu, or Super Giant) must save the Earth from nuclear peril. This is the American (English edited and dubbed) version of the Japanese super-hero's earliest movies, Sûpâ jaiantsu (1957) and Zoku sûpâ jaiantsu (1957). Herein, Mr. Utsui is Starman of "The Emerald Planet". Considering the material, this is a sometimes surprisingly well-directed, by Teruo Ishii, piece of super-nonsense; the location scenes are most enjoyable. Otherwise, it's, at best, unintentionally funny.

Watch for the scene where Utsui goes to a church with some children, and meets a nun. She gives him a smile that shows she's attracted to him; then, the young nun looks down at Utsui's groin area, where he has positioned his gun. Oh, sister!

*** Atomic Rulers (1964) Teruo Ishii ~ Ken Utsui, Utako Mitsuya, Junko Ikeuchi

Atomic Rulers (2) (1965) -

There's no way that anyone could deny that this Japanese Superman was a terrible film. I didn't think that even one element of it was well done, especially for 1965. Take in to consideration that 'The Wizard Of Oz' was made in 1939 and its obvious that they weren't even trying to make a decent film and if they were, shame on them. Some films like 'Flash Gordon' (1980) can get away with a tongue in cheek stab at sci-fi with slightly questionable effects and acting, but it was as if the makers of this one hadn't even understood the filmmaking process or ever been to the cinema before.

But! But, it was funny because of that, although it was highly unlikely that was intentional.

There were so many flaws in it that I didn't even start to list them. I could nitpick all day and not just nits but big massive giant bugs too. Some of the translation and dubbing was really badly done though. I've noticed that with a lot of the modern stuff I've been watching so it really stood out here. That used to be a part of the charm of watching 'Godzilla' (1954) and so on as Larvell Jones (Michael Winslow) from 'Police Academy' (1984) used to take the mick out of, but this was just so bad.

The super alien planet that sent 'Starman' to Earth's rescue due to nuclear armament could have done a lot more to help and he wasn't even that clever as an individual. Also, the fight scenes were terrible and honestly I've seen better episodes of 'Thunderbirds' (1965-6).

I might have been semi entertained by this as a ten year old boy at a flea pit picture house back in 1965, however I think that even then my tastes would have been more refined by the other efforts that had been available at the time and even before.

I'm not gutted that I spent an hour and a half on it because Im interested in film and it's good to have balance. I do know that I won't be watching it again though.

420.11/1000.