Battle in Outer Space (1959)

The gang was back together again with Honda Ishiro at the helm, Ifukube Akira providing the music, and Tsuburaya Eiji creating the world of miniatures and special effects in Battle in Outer Space. Not as socially relevant as Godzilla (1954) but an alien invasion did manage to bring the warring nations of the world together to form a united front against the extraterrestrial interlopers.

Alien spaceships destroy a space station orbiting the Earth and then move on to creating havoc on terrestrial targets. RIP Venice. A covert alien base is discovered on the moon. Fortunately, the clever Earthlings have created a heat ray that can combat the invading force. Katsumiya, his girl Etsuko, and Professor Adachi lead one SPIP spaceship headed to stop the invaders. An international force commanded by Dr. Richardson mans the second spaceship. Unbeknownst to either crew, navigator Iwomura’s brain has been commandeered by the Natals. With their mind control, lasers, and anti-gravity machines, is there any way the people of Earth will survive?

The first hump in watching this movie is the “science”. The Natals froze objects in order to release them from gravity. Mmm…kay. The astronauts were constantly checking the barometric pressure in their moon vehicles. Uh, what? Three different times, a crew member was warned about there being no gravity on the ship and little on the moon when they floated about while everyone else’s feet were on the ground. Were they able to will themselves to not float?

I’m a Godzilla and Mothra girl so I just roll with the miniatures. Tsuburaya did an excellent job with the Earth cities, alien ships (the smaller ones looked like Manta Rays), and especially the moon’s surface. I did giggle at the moon vehicles because they strongly resembled the Oscar Mayer Weinermobiles from my country. In all, the special effects and miniatures and sets were better than average for the time. The acting was pretty good though Etsuko was not the brightest bulb.

This was supposed to be a follow-up to The Mysterians (1957). Apparently, the only thing from the original script that survived were the characters having some of the same names as the predecessor. Mount Fuji survived this flick, but other cities were not so lucky. An alien kaiju or giant robot would have been nice to have, but that’s nitpicking. Overall, the film was quite watchable largely due to Tsuburaya’s efforts. If you like Honda’s early films in this genre, Battle from Outer Space is one to try.

27 October 2025

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