Steineded How sad is this?

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Hitchcoc The premise is OK. The Earth has managed to stay afloat despite terrible trials. Two adversarial forces have designs on Mars. The movie is talky and dull. The movie has no pacing and is dull. The science is unclear and dull. There is pointless stuff going on and it is dull. The butchering of the original led to incredible dullness. The special effects were quite dull. The scene at the end with all the "heroes" coming in on speedboats was almost embarrassing. You'd swear it was a half hour before the Academy Awards. Don't bother with this blather. Apparently, some of Hollywood's great minds got together to produce this sludge. If I didn't mention it, it was dull.

dbborroughs The American version of this film concerns a race into space and was assembled by Roger Corman who cut up the original Soviet film and then added some footage of his own. From the looks of things Corman took a ponderous and very serious film about a trip to the stars and made it some what less serious. Certainly the gravity of the performances of the original remain but at the same time introduction of the battling monsters in the final twenty minutes changes everything. Honestly the only real reason to watch this sleep inducing film is the two monsters which battle it out while the astronauts watch. The creatures are nothing if not monstrous to look at and possess forms that are rather unique, namely less than the less than veiled shapes of genitalia. Clearly the filmmakers assigned by Corman were bored and I doubt they really ever thought they'd actually get away with what they did, but there it is on the screen, who monsters locked in a vicious battle thats in actuality a less than subtle commentary of the male female dynamic. I don't think I ever really paid any attention to their shape for the longest time, it wasn't until I had it pointed out to me that the film suddenly became so much more interesting. Unfortunately the monsters are only briefly seen at the end, but in an otherwise somber film, their inclusion is enough to watch the film if you are a monster nut like me.

dane-92 From the very beginning, I was impressed with the quality of the special effects in this movie which, I agree with other reviewers, were very good for their time. The obligatory monster scene on the Mars moon is mercifully short...and if you can just hold your nose through that part, the rest of the film is good enough to make you feel you're really up there with them. I liked the message of the film too, even if it wasn't the original intention of the longer communist propaganda flick. I disagree with those who completely pan Battle Beyond the Sun. I thought much of it was convincing sci-fi, and I'd recommend viewers judge it for themselves.

jbrotychoorion Saw this long ago late one night on an old UHF (read second-rate) TV channel. Its was another attempt by a cheapo studio to make a quick buck by grafting cheap American footage onto a cheaply purchased Russian sci-fi film , and foisting it onto an unsuspecting American public, probably as the second of a double feature. The plot , which was probably drastically altered from the original Russian film, concerns a space race between two antagonistic regions on Earth, which I believe they referred to as North Hemis and South Hemis. I think the goal was mars , but (SPOILER ALERT) I don't think they make it. One side, probably the Americans in the original, attempt to make it there first in a risky effort and crash on one of Mars' moons (dont ask me which one). The other side rescues them and they all become friends, the message being one of peaceful coexistence in exploration of the stars....Most of the film is a reediting of the original Russian film, and much of that footage is interesting. The lift off and mission control scenes are well handled , and some of the space flight scenes have a 2001-like quality. There definitely was some money spent. The big American contribution is a laughable fight between monsters on the martian moon. One monster looked like a banana, and the other like a tomato. Who knows what they were thinking. Maybe it was to liven up the original film, which apparently was a straight-forward, realistic depiction of a trip to Mars, minus boogy men. All I can think is that Coppola, under the name Thomas Colchart, accepted this assignment to get his foot in the door......