Rating: **
Review Date: 12/30/12
Cast: Yuko Asano
Essentially a remake of "Atragon" (1963) with a touch of "Green Slime" (1968) thrown in. Unfortunately, it fails to pay off. In 1988, the King Of Hell decides to invade Earth using a spaceship that looks like a Roman galley with a Japanese temple on top of it. It's certainly stylish, if nothing else. Earth responds by chasing him back to Venus with their own super spaceship called Gohten, which looks like a modern naval battleship with a giant drill on the front (similar to Atragon). What is it with the Japanese and giant drills? During their trip to Venus, the captain's daughter (beautiful Yuko Asano) gets kidnapped by the enemy and forced to wear a sexy black outfit. She is guarded by a creature that resembles a Wookiee with ox horns who wields a giant axe. Okay... Ms. Asano is also a focal point of dramatic tension in a love triangle with the two male leads, which nobody really cares about. That pretty much sums up the entire film: a bunch of melodramatic crap that bloats a tiresome and pointless plot. The film looks pretty poor and the sets are sparse and unattractive. Some of the visual effects and miniatures are fun to watch, but for the most part they're rather silly. Disappointing sci-fi fluff with pre-teen sensibilities.