Comparing War of the Planets to Star Wars is like comparing a Rolls Royce to a Robin Reliant, Robin Reliants have a tendency to fall over when turning, two wheels in the back and one in the front. I was surprised to find out both movies came out the same year 1977, I thought War of the Planets came out in the middle 60's. Star Wars had top notch special effects, this movie has bad, cartoon like, laughable special effects, especially COSMIC LOVE, two people on two separate beds moaning and groaning to music. The acting was so bad I'm surprised that anybody had any kind of acting career afterwards.

In all honesty, I'm probably being a bit generous with the rating here, but, though I've only very recently started writing reviews on IMDB, I figure I'm not going to rate something I do still kind of enjoy lower than a 5. Maybe my ideas will change about this as time goes on. Right now, I can't say. This movie is not boring, even though it's rather inept, and even laughable. I've seen almost all of these Bresccia space movies from 77/80 now and theyr'e all real bargain bin stuff, but this one is probably the best of the lot. Whether that is of any significance, depends on you. Regardless, all these films are of the sort of quality that makes the Gamma 1 films from 10+ years before seem like works of majestic artistry. You should probably be scared by that assertion.I can just imagine some drunk producer, having just gotten out of a viewing of Star Wars in 1977, calling up poor Alfonso on the phone and shouting, "WE GOTTA MAKE A MOVIE LIKE THIS! GET TO IT!" Alfonso, being a patient, quiet sort of man (ok, I'm really guessing, here), could not make his gentle queries about budgetary concerns and such heard. So, it's off to the junk yard he goes, to pick up any vaguely electronic-looking odds-and-ends he can find. Armed with this and a few bottles of super-glue, and a lot of wire, he proceeds to assemble his motley band of space marines.So, I know it's been mentioned before, but the editing of this film is weird, and makes it seem almost more artistic than it probably is. Scenes from the beginning of the film are never explained, or the consequences only kind of reveal themselves at the very end. A few of the scenes might be out of order -- or they might not be. it's up to you to decide. The result is -- actually kind of cool, in a loopy, doped-up way.What's interesting, too, is that while this may have been intended as a Star Wars cash-in, it's really not much like Star Wars at all. What this resembles, to me, is the original Star Trek series crashing messily into Barbarella. So, basically, this film , ather than being in any way on the cutting-edge of a new sci-fi trend, already looks, feels, sounds -- ten, or even fifteen years, out of date. The fact our man Al was probably asked to do the best he could to simulate Star Wars and came up with -- this -- is actually quite something, isn't it?Also, there are about three trick endings, each more hilarious than the last. At the finish, I swear I almost felt like clapping. They had some balls to pull this off, I'll say that for 'em. if you're gonna watch one of these turkeys, let it be this one.

Only the most determined and devoted of science fiction fans will make it all the way through this without reaching for an extra strength Tylenol. You might also get a headache by the red and tan outfits that the astronauts wear in this, with caps to match. The leaders of the mission look like they raided Aquaman's closet and headed to the other direction to avoid discovery. It's in the hands of hot tempered captain John Richardson to figure out what's causing some sort of interference all over earth, and that supposedly has something to do with huge meteor showers flying through space. Tedious from start to finish, this lays there like one of Mars' moons, simply spouting off scientific sounding terms to sound intelligent. What it ends up as is pretentious and phony, really offering no surprises and making absolutely no sense. Unless this was released with the financial assistance of a pain reliever firm, it makes no sense as to how this escaped a movie studio editing booth.

Truly bad news. The properties, sets, acting, and effects are all consistently sub-standard. This could be the top of the bottom I suppose all those employed in the movie industry have to work, but, I can't imagine anyone involved in the making of this picture will be proudly telling the grandkids about making this clinker. I LOVE science fiction even the campy stuff. I can excuse the stuff that uses contemporary props in futuristic settings 64 years in the future in 2924,ala "Beyond The Time Barrier" from 1960 I remember seeing it when I was 10, great futuristic sets and then M-2 carbines??!! Really? I can honestly say, don't waste your time.