Flash Gordon was obviously made to cash in on the sci-fi boom that was begun by Star Wars, but it belong to an earlier era- the high camp of the 70's, personified by The Rocky Horror Picture Show. As such, it's a hard movie to review because it doesn't really tried to be good in the traditional sense- it aspires to be trashy fun, and the two star review is because it only partially succeeds on that level.
The original Flash Gordon was for years the most popular science fiction in the country. Begun as a comic strip, it reached iconic statues from three movies serials starring Buster Crabbe, and had numerous TV and cartoon adoptions. George Lucas tried to make his own movie version in the early seventies, but he was unable to get the rights, so he made his own science fiction saga. As the documentary on the DVD states, Flash Gordon has not had the staying power of other cultural icons, such as Sherlock Holmes. Perhaps that's because there's not much depth to the character and Flash seems perennially locked in the 1930's in a bad way.
Anyway, the film rights to the comic strip (which ran until 2003) were acquired by Dino De Laurentis who provided the film with a much lower budget than the big budget sci-fi movies he was cashing in on. That's okay, because it probably works better that the Hawk-men, for example, have wings that look like plastic.
Following the plot of a movie like this would pointless, so suffice it to say that it involves football star Flash (Sam J. Jones) who is pitted against Ming the Merciless (Max Von Sydow) who wants to destroy the Earth and marry his girlfriend, Dale Arden (Melody Anderson). On his quest, he is aided by Hawk-men, who have wings that don't work, and the Frigians, who dress like Robin Hood. I remember the cartoon series having Lion-men as well, but unfortunately the movie eliminates these.
There is a lot (and I mean a lot) a kinky sexual innuendo. Most of the space ships look phallic and character's are consistently getting tied up by people dressed totally in leather. There's a lot of gay references as well, and hunky Jones often ends up with his shirt and pants off. The music is by Queen, which I have to admit was about a perfect choice for this kind of material.
But is the movie worth watching? Well, the cast, including Jones, is surprisingly good, playing everything exactly right. They all seem to get what kind of movie there's in. The picture is fun for a while but then it stars to get boring only to pick up towards the end, when director Hodges stages a surprisingly beautiful attack on Ming's ship with the Hawk-men with very funny visual gag involving a tribute to Flash.
But for me, it wasn't enough. The movie is just wears out its welcome, and even talking through the boring parts the entertainment value started to give. I can't recommend the movie for that reason.
Interesting bit of trivia: According to Wikipedia, the movie did badly in every country accept Britain, where it was massive hit and is still one of 100 highest grossing films of all time. I have no idea why.
Flash Gordon (1980)