Space Raiders
Space Raiders (1983)
Image From IMDB
Ok, before I fully confess my undying love of Space Raiders, my absolute favourite post Star Wars sci-fi B-Movie of the eighties, let’s address the recycled elephant in the room. Yes, this movie has a lot of reused effects and music from Battle Beyond The Stars (which I also love) The crews ship is the same. The other alien ships are the same. The space battles are the same. And James Horners magnificent score is once again blasting in full force during every heroic moment.
But… I saw Space Raiders before Battle Beyond the Stars, so despite it coming three years later, in my mind, Space Raiders is the original. I know that doesn’t make sense, but there you go. Plus, it’s a Roger Corman New World Pictures B-Movie, so what’s a couple of borrowed effects?
With that out the way, I really do love Space Raiders. It’s one of those movies that just stuck with me from the very first time I watched it thirty plus years ago. I thought Hawk was an amazing character. I liked the universe it was set in. I loved the stop motion beetle creature, (it may have actually been the thing that started my love affair with stop motion… well, that and Trapdoor) The matte paintings are great, and I loved all the effects and ships years before I watched Battle Beyond the Stars.
Space Raiders follows the story of Hawk and his crew as they accidentally kidnap a child while stealing a ship. They promise to take the kid home, but it seems like the whole galaxy is conspiring against them as they battle Home Alone style kidnappers, alien business men, The Company, and a relentless robot ship. Hawk just wants to do the right thing, but it’s never that easy.
Space Raiders just has an energy about it. It’s structured pretty simply and the effects are off their time and budget, but the movie always feels ambitious. It has fantastic shots showing off the whole ship set and station. Whenever they go someplace to steal something there’s a lot of running around and location shooting. It always feels like it's trying, despite being a post Star Wars cash in.
And the crew are really likeable. Yeah they’re not the nicest to the kid to begin with, but as Amanda says, the kids too nice. They’re not use to nice. While we don’t get much development with the crew, I feel like they’re all kinda fleshed out pretty well anyway. Little lines of dialogue here and there give more background. We know Hawk was in the war. That Amanda has being living the life of crime since she was fifteen. Aldebarian gets shot a lot.
The movie just has a charm to it, and I do think that stems from the crew being roguish, but likeable. From Hawk having some honour even when everything is against them. The kid is a little annoying, but most kids are, and while I wish he’d stop smiling every scene, I think he does do an ok job overall, especially with his affection towards the crew each time they’re shot. Plus, he’s pretty game falling and being shoved all over the place, that would not happen now.
If someone would commission me to write a Space Raiders TV show i’d be all over it, but I kind of think Joss Whedon already partly did that with Firefly (vibe wise). As it’s an eighties Roger Corman B-Movie Space Raiders won’t be for everyone, but I think it’s a classic Space Opera. I love the space junk universe it’s set in, and the makeup of the crew. It’s a movie I have a great deal of time for, and will always defend.
