#613 – Galaxina (1980)

Galaxina (1980)

Film review #613

Director: William Sachs

SYNOPSIS: In the year 3008, the police space cruiser Infinity is given a mission to acquire a mysterious energy source known only as the “Blue Star.” The crew, including female robot Galaxina, set a course for Altair One, a trip which will take them twenty seven years in cryosleep…

THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Galaxina is a 1980 sci-fi parody film. Set in the year 3008, the space police cruiser Infinity is patrolling the edges of known space when its inept crew are contacted with a mission: to retrieve a rock known only as the “blue star,” which is a source of great energy. Sensing a chance at riches and glory, the crew embark on the trip, aided by their female android Galaxina. Being a parody film, the story isn’t the most important aspect of the experience, and is mostly an amalgamation of familiar tropes. usually this eases viewers in so they don’t get bogged down in details, and gives the comedy plenty to lampoon, but here, the problems with the plot structure and pacing severely hamper that effort. The first half of the film is essentially just empty space, where we are introduced to a crew of unlikeable characters that do little other than bicker and moan, while throwing out the occasional crass joke. For forty minutes this continues until we finally get a plot: the crew are asked to go and fetch the mysterious “blue star” rock, and have to spend twenty seven years in cryosleep to reach the planet of Altair One. While the crew is in stasis, Galaxina learns to speak and modify herself to be more human, and so is actually able to be a character of some substance. The second half of the film decides to add some parody of Western films into the mix, diluting the already weak sense of direction and purpose has even further. That said, the film does find it’s footing a bit more in the second half, with more direct parodies such as the pointy eared bartender “Mr. Spot,” and a motorcycle cult/gang who worship their mythical God “Harley David-Son.” By this point though, there’s not enough time for the film to really accomplish anything of note, and still most of the jokes just fail to land.

The film takes on the big sci-fi hitters, such as Star Trek, Star Wars, Alien and 2001, parodying them all at various points. I feel like the film is aimed at a sci-fi audience rather than a general one, but the jokes just don’t go deep enough for that purpose. The choir sound effect whenever someone mentions the “blue star” is the only time the film breaks the fourth wall, and again it just feels like a joke thrown in there because the more types of humour the film can cram in, the better (spoiler: it’s not better). You can overlook the barebones production and effect because that’s part of the old sci-fi experience, but that said, the practical models of the ships are fairly nice. As mentioned, the characters are all fairly unlikeable, even Thor, who provides Galaxina’s love interest, and perhaps is meant to be the most “normal” of the crew, is devoid of any real personality other than being horny. Galaxina has some idea of what it wants to be, but the poor pacing makes it too easy for viewers to get lost. The humour and jokes constantly miss their landing, and an overreliance on crude humour ages the film poorly too. The film finds some footing eventually, but at that point, it’s too late to redeem it, and it just doesn’t achieve anything remarkable. There’s much better sci-fi parodies out there, and this one should probably be left on the fringes of known space.