SPACEHUNTER: ADVENTURES IN THE FORBIDDEN ZONE (1983)
Article 4352 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-30-2013
Directed by Lamont Johnson
Featuring Peter Strauss, Molly Ringwald, Ernie Hudson
Country: Canada / USA
What it is: Somewhere between STAR WARS and THE ROAD WARRIOR

An adventurer undertakes a rescue of three women stranded on a planet that has been ravaged by plagues.

Well, I will say this much; it isn’t quite the STAR WARS clone that I expected it to be from the opening credits; once the adventurer lands on the planet, the movie remains, for lack of another word, earthbound. If anything, it borrows more from THE ROAD WARRIOR at that point. I will say this much about the movie; the art direction is easily the high point of the movie; I just like the ugly makeshift junky look of everything on the planet. However, the story doesn’t have much to recommend it, the action is often confusing, the characters are forgettable, and since I saw it flat, I can’t really say how it would have looked in 3D. There’s the odd moment here and there that works, but the movie is mostly a loud, obnoxious, tiresome blur.