Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		2.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.5

Battle in Outer Space Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman October 23, 2018

The 1950s were particularly good to the Sci-Fi genre, producing several classics amidst a mass of makeshift and lower budget titles just hoping to capitalize on the craze. The decade's best, and even its more modestly successful and even bad ventures, certainly set the stage for some of the giants to follow in the 1960s and 1970s, including 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Trek, and Star Wars. Battle in Outer Space released at the tail-end of the decade to modest critical acclaim. Director Ishirō Honda's film is a simple, budget-minded story of aliens planning on destroying Earth and man's fight to stop them. Minimal characterization, charmingly spartan sets and costumes, and straightforward plot lines and action shape the movie, which yields a fun escape but little of value or note within the genre-at-large.

In 1965, a Japanese space station comes under attack by three alien vessels. Meanwhile, the world is experiencing unexplainable, mysterious events including devastating floods and train derailments. A world council meets to brainstorm and find a solution. It is quickly discovered that aliens are in man’s midst. The Iranian delegate’s body and mind are taken over by alien powers, and he ultimately reveals that the inhabitants of planet Natal have established a base on the moon and are planning to attack. In response, a unified Earth is sending two ships to the moon, one of which is to be commanded by Professor Richardson, the second by Dr. Adachi. As the ships race to the lunar surface armed with advanced weapons and hope, it becomes clear that the aliens are determined to succeed in destroying the Earth at all costs.

The film is more concerned with story than characters, more concerned with visuals than building drama beyond any given scene’s action requirements. For most all of the movie’s opening act, it assembles a large collection of characters who collectively, not individually, advance the story, as they huddle and discuss the alien threat and show off new technologies meant to defend mankind from alien attack. These scenes are a jumble of panic, plodding, and planning as world leaders deal with the realities of a new existential threat to mankind and eventually find themselves against one of their own who has been taken over by the aliens. Indeed, the film finds much of its drama when the aliens inhabit various characters, whether that world representative at the council or some amongst the astronauts who are capable of doing more damage to man’s mission than any high-power alien laser blasts.

Once the story shifts to the moon, the action becomes a little slow and plodding, with a fairly dull middle stretch that sees the pair of rocket ships, and the people who will fly in them, prep for the mission. The action on the moon is split between the alien inhabitation and various ray gun battles between man and alien, the latter of which lack much kinetic energy but do give some excitement to the proceedings in a more familiar arena of direct conflict. The final act sees the action return to Earth, where the aliens destroy several landmarks and a pitch battle ensues to save the world.

The film’s visuals are quaint, boasting fairly impressive matte painting work used for a number of backgrounds and various miniatures playing key roles throughout, whether spacecraft or scenes of great destruction on Earth in the film’s final minutes. “Charmingly efficient” might be a polite way of describing them against more modern digital frenzies, but even if the illusion is not completely solid, there’s still satisfaction in the way the effects melt into the movie and complement the cheesy, lower-budget costumes, to-scale models, and sets that are also not particularly impressive by modern standards. Nevertheless, one can only appreciate the effort of a vintage B-production that was made by hand rather than inside a computer.

Battle in Outer Space Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Battle in Outer Space's 1080p image generally looks fine, with the caveat that print damage is commonplace, with pops and scratches evident in practically every shot. The flip side is that the image otherwise impresses. It's naturally filmic, grain is retained evenly and attractively, and textures benefit from a natural, largely untampered presentation. The 1080p clarity allows for the flimsy costumes and models to reveal their fragility and seams. Wires holding up ships are plainly visible. Essential human skin and clothing details fare well. Outer space blacks are a little faded, but colors hold solidly otherwise, including skin tones. The palette doesn't burst off the screen with any intensity, but shades enjoy a satisfying neutrality and enough saturation and nuance to please. The image is very dated but holds up well enough on Blu-ray if one can look beyond the print damage, which in this case gives the image a bit of vintage character, anyway.

Battle in Outer Space Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The included DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 soundtracks, one each in original Japanese and dubbed English, sound essentially identical beyond exchanged dialogue. Either track struggles to find precise musical reproduction, favoring more of a chunky, muddled sound than a more fluid, lifelike clarity, which is to be expected of a modestly budgeted film that is nearly six decades old. Likewise, effects are shaky, whether a rumbling train, laser blasts, or various battles and moments of destruction. Many effects favor a shrieking, shrilly sensation. Dialogue is clear enough in both languages and does well enough to image towards the middle portion of the listening area.

Battle in Outer Space Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Battle in Outer Space contains one extra, an audio commentary track with Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski. The pair cover the film's place along history's timeline, story structure, narrative themes, cast and crew details, production values, and much more. The pair have plenty of interesting details to share, but delivery is stale and clearly presented verbatim from prepared notes.

Battle in Outer Space Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Battle in Outer Space hasn't aged particularly well next to some of the giants of its decade (War of the Worlds, The Day the Earth Stood Still) but it's a charming little venture that's straightforward, setting aside real character development in favor of building action and alien invasion danger. Miniatures, matte paintings, and manpower make the movie, and it's a welcome escape from today's big budget digital constructs. Sony's Blu-ray delivers solid, though certainly imperfect, video. Audio is decent enough and a commentary track is included. Recommended.