Atomic Rulers

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

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!

Starman this time is out to thwart a country of loons who want to nuke the earth, starting with Japan! Starman is sent to Earth to give these baddies a knuckle supper and to stop radiation spreading through the universe (which is full of radiation anyway, let's not think about it).

Of course there's kids here to help Starman out, if you can call stealing nuclear material 'helping'. Also, some cops, a nun, and others you won't care about because these films are all about the arse kicking.

This one is definitely lacking in Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). There's no lizard men or...whatever those aliens in Evil Brain from Outer Space were...or even any Evil Brains. Starman does manage to survive a nuclear blast before taking on about fifty guys at a time though.

Got to agree with the majority though...this should be one of your last Starman choices - Evil Brain and Invaders from Space are much better.

"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

Although "Atomic Rulers" is pretty bad at times, you cannot completely blame the filmmakers who created this. That's because originally, this consisted of two episodes from a children's TV show--and it was, naturally, in Japanese. Some American folks bought these TV shows, re-edited them and repackaged them as four different movies: EVIL BRAIN FROM OUTER SPACE, ATOMIC RULERS, INVADERS FROM SPACE, ATTACK FROM SPACE. So, while in their original form this might have been a decent kids show when it debuted in the late 1950s, here in a different form and with dubbing, it loses something. Also, interestingly, in the original form the hero was not known as 'Starman' but 'Supergiant'.

The film begins like the rest in this series. You get a look at the Emerald World--with its very goofy residents. Again, however, for a kids' show of the time, it wasn't as bad seeing these bizarre costumes. Anyway, these weirdos are worried that the nuclear radiation from Earth could somehow make it across the galaxy to infect their planet! While this sounds ridiculous, understand that Japan had, only a little over a decade earlier, been nuked. So, the proliferation of shows like this and the Godzilla movies make a bit more sense.

In this installment of the series, the evil Magolians are planning on taking over the world thanks to their many secret agents and nuclear weapons. And, considering that Starman is definitely against nuclear proliferation, he's out to stop them. Seeing him in his adorable superhero outfit is a bit funny as he really looks a lot like Duck Dodgers of the 25th and a half century! And, being totally geared towards kids, you can understand the annoying cliché of adding a group of adorable orphans into the mix. It's full of silly children's helicopters, guns that fire in a bizarre manner and baddies who seem pretty lame. It's all pretty predictable kid's fare. Yet, oddly, in a kitschy manner, it's pretty fun to watch...and laugh. Not good but not 100% terrible.

By the way, I was a bit confused, as two other films (PRINCE OF SPACE and INVASION OF THE NEPTUNE MEN) are nearly identical and yet are NOT part of the Starman series. Confusing...and also very silly when seen today.