Battle Beyond the Stars is, first and foremost, a B-movie. It's bad in a way that only B-movies can be, and it's got the same strange charm that only B-movies can possess. It's not on the level of bad as, say, Ed Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space, but Battle Beyond the Stars (on Blu-ray from Shout! Factory 7/12) has no redeeming factors when you take it seriously. When you don't take it seriously, however, it becomes more entertaining.
It's blatantly -- almost too blatantly -- a Star Wars ripoff. That applies even down to design: one of the spaceships is almost a carbonite copy of the Tantive IV from A New Hope. There's a Luke Skywalker type protagonist sent from a desert planet to save them from a conquering militaristic force. It was so clearly done to cash in on the success of the first Star Wars film three years before. Too bad it's so much more dull than George Lucas's films.
Having said that, there are some interesting things about the film. The character design, which includes an anthropomorphic locust-like creature and a sexy Greek goddess-inspired warrior, is fairly interesting. There's the strange inclusion of a cowboy character -- obviously filling the gap of Han Solo -- but even stranger is the presence of the confederate flag on the side of his spaceship.
Overall, Battle Beyond the Stars is a very strange, bad film that will probably be near and dear to the hearts of B-movie fans everywhere. Just because I didn't find it quite palatable doesn't mean it doesn't have a target audience -- and they know who they are.
