Carmen and her father are going for stroll in the hills when they see a cheaply made flying saucer land in a field. A gold-colored boy gets out and meets up with a scientist in a white lab coat. The boy is Silio from the planet Aramina in the Andromeda galaxy. He has come to earth to solve our energy crisis because our oil consumption is going to knock the earth out of balance, which in turn will knock the galaxy out of balance which will cause our galaxy to smash into his galaxy. It all makes perfect sense. So they build a supercomputer that can give the operator god-like powers and special glittery clothing. The scientist betrays Silio and ties him up. He kidnaps Carmen and turns her into a super-genius dressed like a cross between a vampire and a go-go dancer. Then he reveals his plan for world domination. All of this in the first 14 minutes. No point in wasting time.
Silio sends word back to his home planet and asks them to send help in the form of Superzan who arrives dressed as a glittery golden Luchador. In defense, Doctor Bentini, the evil scientist guy, summons his own Luchador named Evil Genius. Lots of wrestling ensues. The wrestling scenes have the look and feel of the classic Batman television show from the 60s but instead of all the Dutch angles, we are treated to a nauseating handheld camera that swings around to follow the action. There are also some unfortunate choices of camera placement as seen below on the left.
The rest of the movie is mostly running and wrestling. Superzan And The Space Boy has less wrestling than most Luchador films. To its credit, It is more plot-driven and costume-driven. Superzan doesn’t have the swagger of other movie star Lachadors like El Santo. El Santo exudes suave machismo as he tools through town in his tiny sports car, topless and well oiled (Santo not the car) while Superzan lumbers around a bit like Frankenstein’s monster.
Superzan isn’t really the main character in Superzan And The Space Boy, the golden space boy is. Superzan is however the star of many other films like Superzan The Invincible (1971), The Vampires of Coyoacán (1973), and The Castle Of The Mummies of Guanajuato (1973). It seems like all Luchadors have to face vampires and mummies in their adventure films. There must be a real problem with the undead in Mexico. Maybe that’s why America needed that border wall so urgently.
Superzan And The Space Boy was written and directed by Rafael Lanuza who made several Superzan films, but before I run out to see another Superzan adventure I am awfully curious about a film Lanuza made in 1987 called Sexo, Sexo, Ra Ra Ra. I can’t speak Spanish but something about the title is intriguing.
If you’re going to watch a bad low budget film it is best to find one that is jam-packed with a variety of stuff. It’s a quantity over quality thing. Superzan And The Space Boy has space aliens, laser guns, supercomputers, wrestlers, mind control, and fabulous costumes. It may all be campy crap, but it is a lot of campy crap so you have to give them points for portion size.
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