A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Apart from his stint among the ensemble of AIRPORT '77, 1977 was truly Annus Horribilis for Christopher Lee: his three genre efforts were easily among the worst exploitation outings of their vintage that I have come across! For the film under review, I sure hope that he did not accept it without even bothering to read the script – in the vain hope of matching the enormous success enjoyed by his frequent colleague Peter Cushing with the same year's STAR WARS (for the record, he would himself eventually join that most auspicious franchise – albeit with a quarter century's delay)! Well, where to begin with this lamentable Canadian attempt at a space opera – which, more than actively ripping off the George Lucas blockbuster, takes a leaf (or two) from yet another 1977 sci-fi landmark, i.e. Steven Spielberg's CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND! In fact, here we have two sets of aliens, one which is evil and intent on destroying our planet (shades of Lee's own END OF THE WORLD, one of his afore-mentioned contemporaneous duds) and the other benign and seeking to thwart their plan (though, yet again, they still need to kidnap humans in order to have THEIR computer system fixed – WTF?!). To be fair to this one, it is not as deadly dull as the others – in fact, I ended up laughing out loud a number of times throughout! Indeed, its unintentionally hilarious moments are perhaps too many to catalogue or remember even at a mere day's juncture, but I will try regardless: a dim-witted, middle-aged farmer is abducted and conditioned to engage in sexual intercourse with a voluptuous alien (which he cannot quite believe is happening to him!); the costume of the invaders looks like a full-body black condom (which Christopher Lee looks understandably miserable inhabiting – what is more, all the actors playing extraterrestrials have had to loop their lines in post-production, since the writer-producer-director apparently thought it cool to allow them to only voice their thoughts!); equally incomprehensible is the redundant presence of what can only be described as space escorts forever waiting in the wings – maybe they should have called the film STAR WHORES?!; a couple of inept intergalactic goons realize too late that their protective force-field was not switched on, so that they are blown to bits by the typically impulsive and paranoid U.S. military; hero Robert Vaughn (displaying a fixed baffled countenance throughout) is supposed to be an expert on UFOs, yet when one flies over his car he does not immediately notice it and has to be alerted to its presence by his kid daughter and, on realizing that he missed the all-important sighting, he just shrugs and keeps on driving; to recruit his computer whiz pal to the aliens' cause, he visits him one evening at home, yet this guy is still wearing his coat and tie as if they were his casual attire; the world's end comes by way of a suicide epidemic (not in itself a bad idea, but would it not just take too long to achieve?) triggered by a laser beam fired from way out in space; Vaughn's wife, depressed over his absence from home (she had already voiced her concern about how he was being unfaithful to her with UFOs!), goes from peeling onions for dinner to slashing her wrists in a split second; though supposedly emanating from outside our atmosphere, the spaceships are inexplicably seen emerging from the sea several times; Lee does very little here except press random buttons off a keyboard and aimlessly fiddle with knobs to feign his authority, check his wristwatch every now and again to God knows what ostensibly vital purpose, and operate the occasional flimsy ray gun (also worn on his wrist), etc. Apparently, Lee himself though of STARSHIP INVASIONS as the nadir of his career…but, while I beg to differ (relatively speaking), it was certainly not a fluke of a low point! In ant case, it was shown under various titles to no effect: ALIEN ENCOUNTERS, ALIEN WARS and PROJECT GENOCIDE!

Yes, this movie really is worth seeing. Mainly because two big named actors Robert Vaughn and Christopher Lee agreed to act in a film with FX, set direction, and costumes that look like they were slapped together at a church picnic.Really! This is a laugh riot! The plot: Vaughn is a renowned scientist and family man who's having his reputation damaged by speaking out publicly about UFOs. Apparently, Big Brother knows about the aliens and Earth and wants to keep the matter quiet.Like all media the term UFO doesn't mean "Unidentified Flying Object" such a insects, reflections of light, or lens' glare. UFO mean "Extra Terrestrial Spacecraft." Actually aliens are on earth doing experiments at several well hidden bases. But they're so advanced they come in peace and just want to study us. However, evil alien Christopher Lee heads a coup of their bases. Lee's evil alien race used up all their planet's resourced and now wants to enslave/destroy humanity.The surviving peaceful aliens reach out to Vaughn by literally landing on his front yard. Apparently only Vaughn is smart enough to develop a super weapon to defeat Lee.The sheer fact that Vaughn is able to keep a straight face during these scenes is side splitting!!! What the heck was used to blackmail Vaughn and Lee into being in this movie.I'd have to think once they saw the set which looks like a children's playhouse they would be kicking a screaming to get out of there! Some of these scenes are the funniest in motion picture history!

HI,Practically every thing in the movie was taken from UFO encounters of some sort reported through the previous years.Whether it was the type of uniform, the insignia, the concept of guardians, the type and location (somewhat) of the base, etc. you get the idea, was made to resemble UFO contact reported information.For me the most catching part of the movie was when one of the robots said "I think I can." when responding to a request for assistance from a guardian vessel under attack.It came out shortly after one of the star wars movies and was labeled in the press as a "star wars" ripoff wannabe.

It was poopoo then, it Has to be poo poo now. Christopher Lee as a RamaTut Alien, bad F/X saucers, stuff right outta those goofy 'The Outer Space Connection/Chariots of the Gods' '70s UFO crap flix, etc. Even has Helen Shaver, a fat guy on a tractor, a cute brunette Alien nude chick and the Man from Uncle w/ his 9 buck Calculator saving the day. Def. one for the ages. Where were Tom Servo and Cro when ya needed them?* maybe. Real bad.