Gordon's Alive on DVD again!

Flash! Aaaahhh-aahhhhhh! Saviour of the Universe!

As soon as anyone mentions Flash Gordon, most people instantly hear Queen playing. It all started out many years earlier with old 1940s serials of this story (which you may have seen repeated on TV at some point in the 1980s and 1990s), but most people's experience of Flash Gordon comes from this 1980 film (and I've yet to find anyone who could sit through the recent Sci-Fi channel remake!)

In case you've been trapped on war rocket Ajax for the last 28 years, a very brief summary of what happens follows...

Emperor Ming The Merciless, Ruler of the Universe (modest fellow you see) is attacking the Earth, and only crackpot scientist Dr Hans Zarkov has cottoned on to this. He builds a spaceship in order to go and investigate the source of the attacks on Earth. Meanwhile, American Footballer Flash Gordon's plane (along with him and his travel agent) gets caught up in a meteor storm, and they just happen to crash land in Hans' garden. And then they just happen to get tricked into his rocket and blast off to find Ming.

Ming isn't impressed by these puny earthlings, but can Flash save the day by uniting the rest of Ming's planet against him? I think you can guess...

Video

A 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer which looks about as good as it could. This is a camp-fest, so lots of garish colours, out there "spaceman" sets and weird costumes are on show. It's not a perfect transfer, but it's about as good as you could hope for. Probably the same transfer as on the 25th anniversary release.

As you might expect, the special effects aren't much cop by today's standards, and they were really put to shame by Lucas' team of boffins at Industrial Light & Magic at the time of release (which is one of the reasons why this bombed back in the day).

Audio

A pair of soundtracks, an average DD2.0 stereo soundtrack (which does a job, but no more), and a DD5.1 soundtrack, which is how this film should be heard. Gone is the DTS track from the 25th anniversary release. It isn't a massive improvement over the DD2.0 stereo track, but it is just a bit more lively and interesting.

Extras

"Open fire! All weapons! Dispatch war rocket Ajax to bring back his body"

Or maybe dispatch it to bring back the extras found on the 25th anniversary release, because Ming's nicked them all and just left the boring trailer here...

Conclusion

This is not a great film, but it is a camp classic. The leads are wooden, and they might even make Hayden Christensen look like a great sci-fi actor. It says everything that Sam J. Jones and Melody Anderson have never acted in any film that you've ever heard of since this one. Brian Blessed is one of the highlights as his big, shouty self. Max Von Sydow is utterly over the top, and you'd never believe that Tim Dalton could go on to be a great Bond in Licence to Kill... See if you can spot Robbie Coltrane making a very brief appearance, and then revel in Peter Duncan getting killed.

The special effects are not at all special, the script is poor and it just screams camp at every turn. But there's always the Queen soundtrack to rescue things. But if you enjoyed it as a child, you might want to have a bit of fun and watch it all over again. You can still watch it in 2008, just as long as you lower your expectations and know what you're letting yourself in for.

This DVD is basically a cut down version of the previously released 25th anniversary edition, so if you're a big fan you'll probably want to hunt down the earlier disc. If you just fancy a bit of camp fun, this disc will probably suit you just fine.