The last time I saw this movie, I was 10... hence the high rating. If I were to go back, I'm sure I'd find plot inconsistency, A horrible budget. and a touch of B acting. The stuff most classics are made of right? Not for the serious movie watcher. But a diamond in our scifi portfolios for those who love sci fi in all of its shame and glory. As a kid I watched this movie with films like Ice Pirates, The Last Unicorn, ET, Battle Beyond the stars (which was made by the same company), Star Trek 1-3, Indian Jones, Old School Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, and even VOLTRON! This movie is a part of my childhood. I played with Lego's and built spaceships to have battles not unlike those in the movie right in my back yard five out seven days a week, the other two I was watching movies like this one. It's good stuff. Right up there with the animated version of Lensman.

Most who worked crew on this film came from around the world, all given a shot at working on a Corman film. There were some talented people involved. Vince Edwards ("Ben Casey") had a great time with all this. Much of the foam latex make-up was quite involved. The purple scarf worn by the alien 'Flightplan' is a great comic book touch. Like all Corman films, he always manages to get the job done, and have a good time doing it ...

The premise of this movie is that a band of space pirates ends up stealing a kid by mistake. This group of "Space Raiders" is led by a man named Hawk, a once honorable soldier, -- or so the story goes, ironically, with Hawk struggling to look good in front of the kid and eventually promising to get the kid home rather than ransoming him. This story has a little bit of everything in it from the exciting action of Star Wars to the warmth and comfort of E.T. It's not technically the most SFX movie in Sci-fi, even for its time, but I would say to rival it against some of the earlier Seals and Croft TV series in the '70's that had that special inspiration of adventure and impossibility that kids love to contemplate. Think of that special after school movie and that's what I'm talking about. I give this film a high rating mostly because it is a movie for kids (the battle scenes are great and the cheesy effects make the gunfights practically non-violent). Younger kids can identify with the boy and preteens can identify with the speed of the story. Give it a try -- it's great family entertainment.