One of my all time favorites.

Absolutely brilliant

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

For a low budget production it is very good an entertaining.It had invoked a special affects organization that would eventually become big.It was independently done.Eventually universal agreed to get involved in it .At the time in 1983 I knew that the 3D would die .I took advantage of all the 3d movies in the theater .I saw this.The making of the film on the Blu- ray disc two,flat, stated a 3D version of the trailer was shown before the Jaws 3d.I remember at the martin twin theater that no trailer was shown..The production was stopped ,because the producer ran out of money and had to go to the Cannes Film festival to sell the movie.Earlier to sell the movie a white lie was produced to going an illusion that it was already being made to get the money.The character in the film ,the ranger Jeffrey Byron as Dogen,I thought he might have been born the same year I was ,but actually was born the same year my brother was born.Tim Thomerson puts on a very good impersonation of Harrison Ford's Han Solo, but he is a good actor.I don't know why Kelly Preston did not get invoked in the interview ,she still does movies today.Jared son,played by R.David Smith ,who plays his son, looks a lot older than Jared and talk telepathically and has one arm,while the other arm is robotic. It was made during the time of the mad max film ,which has been remade.The 3D was good .It was restored by shout Factory.The title was criticized by those who where involved in the production cause Jared never is destroyed .He escapes in a dark hole of the crystal ,as Dogen chases him with flying motorcycles.It give a false impression that there is going to be made a sequel.Maybe a sequel should be made.I'll tell you one thing the recent star wars on Blu- ray is phony 3D and the new theatrical version is probably the same thing,but this movie was actually shot in 3D.Good entertainment 12/28/16

Dogen (Jeffrey Byron) is a Ranger out to take down Jared-Syn who is breaking the peace and recruiting mutants for his holy war. Dhyana (Kelly Preston) and her father are prospectors. They strike the motherlode but Jared-Syn's son Baal kills her father. Dogen finds Dhyana and they discover the crystals could store lifeforce. They are attacked by Baal. Dhyana is transported and taken prisoner. Jared-Syn is storing lifeforce in his giant crystal. Dogen recruits tired old-timer Rhodes (Tim Thomerson) to find Jared-Syn. They impress Hurok (Richard Moll) and his mutant warriors along the way.This is pretty bad. Byron has as much charisma as a rock with as much usefulness for the lead actor. Tim Thomerson does a couple of good turns before he gets out of there. It's following Mad Max style in its desert car-chase action B-movie. However it doesn't have the kinetic energy and relies too much on slow motion. The special effects aren't that special. It's also part of the 80s 3D revival which only adds to the cheese factor. This is not good and not bad enough to be fun. The only good part is the memorable look of Baal.

Its not fair to compare special effects and production 30 years removed, but considering that this gem is sandwiched in a era that produced movies such as Alien, Star Wars IV, V , Back to the Future and the such, this 3D movie is much more akin to a straight to VHS (pre-dvd sales) video then anything else. Watching it , I kept saying to myself, I cannot believe this was released to theater and not a Sunday night movie on ABC back in the day.I will not reveal any spoilers, there isn't much to reveal anyways, its a low value, low budge "B" scifi flick, that doesn't as much reveal any story as it does carry along with a soft overlay of one.I've seen plenty of films of this ilk, but have to say, this is a fairly poor effort even by "B" standards.

I made a mistake and left this same review under MEGAFORCE. That was a horrible movie too, however the review for that movie belonged under this film. It seems as though most of the reviewers have seen this film on cable, tv or video. I remember going to see this film when I was 14 in 1983. This film along with Jaws 3-D were released in 1983 and I was caught up in the whole 3-D thing. While at the time I found Jaws 3-D to be at least suspenseful I, as a teenager, was going to walk out of this horrible film. The only reason I stayed was because I paid for this movie and I wasn't going to walk out on something I paid good money for. In retrospect I think I did more harm in staying. I don't remember the plot the characters or much else. What I do remember is the I the rage that I felt at having wasted time and money by watching this film. The only way I could ever re-watch this film is if it airs on Mystery Theater so that I can poke fun at this film with the hosts of that show.