Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe Reviews

I saw this a long time ago, I should watch it again.

The last of the Flash Gordon serials are definitely the worst of the three, but that doesn't mean its not fun. Sadly a lot of the cast didn't return for this one. The two most important, the hero and the villain, as well as Dr. Zarkov, do return, but I like to see more supporting characters return, and too many are replaced on this one. It is still a solid end to the whole Flash Gordon thing, but it just doesn't have the same level of quality the first, and even second , serials had.

A serial of the great Flash Gordon. He is sent to find a cure for a plague caused by an evil spaceman dropping "death dust" from his spaceships on earth (chemtrails, anyone?). If you know the comic or any of the subsequent films/series you know this is cheesy as hell - cardboard sets and cardboard acting. This may in fact be the best of all the Flash Gordon adaptations.

FLASH GORDON CONQUERORS THE UNIVERSE [1940] from the mid 1910's right to the mid 1950's, the movie serial reigned supreme at the box office. Over a space of twelve to fifteen weekends each new chapter of a serial would play in theatres to a crowd of excited children. But by the mid-1950's the serial died off with the introduction of T.V, the movie however didn't die off thanks to various things like Drive-In movie theatres and Movies in 3-D. During the height of the serial's popularity between the 1930's and 1940's Universal studio's produce one extremely popular serial in 1936 called FLASH GORDON, that serial was such a huge hit two sequels were made , they where FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS [1938] and finally FLASH GORDON CONQUERORSTHE UINVERSE [1940].

Now since I have not seen the first two serials in this serial trilogy, I won't be able to give a tougher back story at all but what I can do in this review is merely review what I've seen.


THE PLOT: When the Earth has been struck with a deadly purple plague all fingers point to the wicked Emperor Ming of the planet Mongo. So it's up to Flash Gordon, his girlfriend Dale Arden and Dr Zarkov to fly to Mongo to stop Ming's fiendish plans. But when Gordon's old friends of friendly kingdoms on Mongo require his assistance, Gordon and co must now fight the evil Emperor Ming for one final time.

Overall view on this serial is one of a positive nature, although I have not seen FLASH GORDON [1936] and FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS [1938]. I found this serial extremely entertaining and downright enjoyable, loved the different ways in which Flash winds up in trouble resulting in a cliff-hanger endings before the next chapter, the neat SFX, the opening title scroll which has become a trademark of the Star Wars series and overall fun aspect to this serial , my rating is an easy 70%