What makes it different from others?

Too many fans seem to be blown away

That was an excellent one.

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

In the 1920s up to the early 50s, a staple of Saturday movie theaters were the movie serials. Each week, you'd see a different chunk of a very long movie--usually 4-5 hours long broken into about a dozen pieces. Folks loved them and they were entertaining...provided you weren't very demanding! The acting usually was adequate at best and the films were filled with one crazy death-defying stunt after another. As for the stories, they usually involved some goofy super-villain as well as a handsome, rugged star.One of the weirdest genres within the serials were the sci-fi pictures--such as Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. Both starred the same handsome hero (Buster Crabbe) and it was pretty easy to mix them both up...though the Flash Gordon was so popular it actually ended up being made into three series--"Flash Gordon", "Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars" and "Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe". "Purple Death from Outer Space" is actually this third series pared down to normal movie length--pared down from 220 minutes to only 88! The Purple Death from the title refers to the sudden deaths of many humans on Earth...and in each case a weird purple mark appeared on the corpse's forehead. Dr. Zarkov thinks this might be the work of the Evil Ming the Merciless, so he and Flash blast off to investigate. His hunch turns out to be true and what follows are a series of adventures and near-death experiences as well as Flash and his friends looking for an antidote for the Purple Death.If you've seen any of the old Flash Gordon serials, this is pretty much the same thing all over again--Mind trying to capture Dale to make her his bride and the Doctor to make him do his evil bidding. And, like the other serials, the trio of good folks are seemingly indestructible. Silly kids' stuff but entertaining despite the silly writing and costumes (many of which look like recycled clothes from "The Prisoner of Zenda" as well as "The Adventures of Robin Hood"--which is pretty odd considering it's sci-fi! Dopey fun.By the way, during the mountain climbing portion of the film set in Frigia, keep count of the good guys. There are four but in several of the bits of stock footage they use, there are five!

According to the synopsis, this is an edited down version of FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE.That is right and wrong. It is right with the "edited down" part.If my copy on the 50-movie pack "Nightmare Worlds" is correct, It fails to note that it is only the edited down version of the first 6 chapters.You don't see what happens to Ming.In other comments on the internet it says that the title of the serial is only explained in the final chapter, which, of course is not a part of this movie.This movie doesn't solve any problems. It just....ENDS.

I have affection for this just because of a childhood experience watching these old serials. There was a fellow who used to show a fifteen minute episode as he sat at the control panel of his space ship. I loved those old rockets hanging on strings as they floated through space with their electric sparks shooting off to the side. The aliens with the angel wings.Ming the Merciless. Flash and Dale. Everything was so cheap and, yet, even as a child, I thought this was some artifact from simpler time. I was actually concerned for Flash and what Charles Middleton was going to do to him. Dr. Zarkoff seemed a bit of a putz, but he was also brilliant. Anyway, this is pretty bad, but I can't judge it too harshly. It wouldn't be right.

Wonderful cornWhen good guys were good and bad guys were bad and there was never any doubt as to which was which.Imagine yourself as a kid in a time when we didn't know a great deal about space travel and were willing to suspend what little we did know for the sake of adventure.Forgive the costumes and sets that appear to be left overs from old war movies and Robin Hood films. Allow yourself to believe that there are clouds in space, rocket ships that sort of float about sounding like vacuum cleaners and ray guns that discharge lighting bolts that look like they are scratched into the film.In short, quit being a grownup for an hour or two and enjoy this grandfather of "Star Wars"