I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

There were many very fine heroes and villains of the serials, but clearly, Buster Crabbe as Flash Gordon, and Charles Middleton as Ming the Merciless were the tops in their respective fields. These fine performers, plus the return of our old friend Frank Shannon as Dr. Zarkhov, help make this an entertaining and appealing serial.This is the most polished and opulent of the Flash Gordon serials, although it lacks the passion and visceral excitement of the 1st serial. Also, it lacks the performers who originated the roles of Dale Arden, Prince Barrin, and Princess Aura. The actors who replaced Barrin and Aura are at least adequate, although they lack the physical charisma of the originals, and we feel especially the loss of Priscilla Lawson's raw sensuality. However, the gal who replaced the wonderful Jean Rogers as Dale is not sufficient to the role, and in one chapter when she was pleading for Flash to save her, I kind of wished Flash had just left her.This serial is not as sexy as the 1st Flash Gordon (which somehow seemed to have been sneaked completely past the Hayes Office), but while the actresses all appear to be wearing bras, there are thankfully a few bare midriffs here and there, and we have the welcome addition of a genuine femme fetalle, in the person of the wicked Sonia, played by Anne Gwynne.While the 1st serials were characterized to a large extent by activities involving the various diverse peoples and monsters of Planet Mongo and Mars, the Lion Men, the Shark Men, the Hawk Men, the Clay People, Azura Queen of Magic, the Forest People, dragons, octosacs, beast men, etc., this serial is more preoccupied with technology and warfare. There are chapters wholly concerned with strategic materials, incendiary bombs, robot bombs, torture of political prisoners, poison gas, and there are more aerial dogfights than in the previous Flash Gordons.Also, Ming is referred to as Dictator Ming, rather than Emperor Ming. Others have already mentioned this, but I agree with the hypothesis that this serial reflects the fact that by 1940 much of the world was at war and that many in the US had the idea that the US would inevitably be drawn into the conflict. In 1939, the Germans invaded Poland, and by the time this serial drew to a close on its first run, the Nazis had also invaded France. There is perhaps a bit of unconscious insight into the geopolitical future in the fact that Flash, whose initial mission was to stop Ming from becoming Conqueror of the Universe, ends his mission when he is declared to be the Conqueror of the Universe.This is entertaining to fans of serials, of B-Movies, of old comic strips, and other aficionados of old school and low budget cinema. It is not as powerful as the 1st Flash serial, and suffers from being a little longer than it should be, and having a little too much back and forth. Also, the directors seemed to have no concept of how to insert a few close-ups into a fight scene to juice up the action. Nonetheless, many viewers would, like me, find it pleasurable to waste 20 minutes here and there with these old friends.

The heroic theme music strikes up, the chapter number and the 'story so far' prologue scroll up the screen and into the distance, and we are thrust into a new adventure where our hero and his companion, now disguised as Imperial Guards, having entered the stronghold of their enemy by spaceship, are about to rescue the beautiful Princess from his evil clutches! Elsewhere in the complex our hero's elderly mentor, dressed in his hooded wizard-like robes, also works to thwart the villain's dastardly plans… Sound familiar? Yes. Of course it does, for this is FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE (actually clunkily titled in all the opening credits as FLASH GORDON SPACE SOLDIERS CONQUER THE UNIVERSE) and is, of course, along with FLASH GORDON ('36) and FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS ('38), the inspiration for Mr. Lucas's other famous space opera, the name of which escapes me for the moment. We even have Imperial Spaceships bombarding our heroes on an Ice Planet (imaginatively called 'Frigia') and a battle on a Forest Moon ('Arboria' – Wow! Who dreams up all this stuff?), where friendly Prince Barin and his 'Merry Men' are bow and arrow wielding precursors to the Ewoks of Endor. There are many other elements too that eventually made their way into George's epic saga, but you'll have to watch it to see how many you can spot.The acting is dreadful, the costumes ridiculous, the 'special effects' laughable and the plot (using the term very loosely) has holes in it big enough to fly an Imperial Battle Cruiser through - but enough about STAR WARS (ah, that was it!). Seriously though, FLASH GORDON may be ropey but I challenge anyone to fault their enthusiasm and the whole is weirdly compelling and great fun.Shamelessly grabbing any spare backlot sets, props, sound effects and costumes available, a trend the much later STAR TREK original series, and others, continued, we are treated to such sights as Imperial officer's uniforms that appear to have been delivered by mail order direct from Ruritania; Prince Barin's 'treemen' clad in medieval castellated Lincoln Green (we assume) skirts and tights straight out of THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD ('38), and backstreets of Mongo that could have equally been trod, and no doubt were, by both Errol Flynn and Frankenstein's Monster. Even the music is stock, the most noticeable being Franz Waxman's 'Birth of the Bride' from his score to BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN ('35), which is plundered repeatedly. Fin-accessorised bullet shaped spaceships buzz around (again to a FRANKENSTEIN laboratory's electrical hum) with sparks falling downwards and smoke drifting up (an amazing thing the vacuum of space), and, no matter the destination, they always land, spirally, in the same scenic valley.All 'dynamic' twelve chapters are presented in this boxed set with irresistible titles like 'The Purple Death', 'The Palace of Terror', 'Freezing Torture', 'The Destroying Ray' and 'Walking Bombs' (these particularly are a hoot), complete with the necessary cliff-hanger endings and opening and closing credits for each, but sadly, and a bad oversight, there are no special features. I know that perhaps this is difficult given the age of the material, but some accompanying old movie newsreels, as on the DVD release of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, might have put it into some kind of historical perspective.In this age of CGI effects where anything is possible, it's nice to look back and see where it all began, and I've no doubt that in 1940 it was equally as enthralling as any SFX blockbuster claims to be today. Get some beers in, some friends around and have some fun as FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE! Trivia Note: Although FGCTU was Buster Crabbe's final appearance as Flash in the old Universal serials, he did make one final cameo appearance as the character in season one of the 1979 TV series BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY which starred Gil Gerard as Buck, a character Crabbe had also played 40 years earlier in 1939. In the two-part episode 'Planet of the Slave Girls' (a typical old Gordon/Rogers chapter title in itself) Crabbe appeared as 'Brigadier Gordon', a former space fighter pilot called out of retirement, and there's a pointed piece of dialogue toward the end of the episode where the new Buck (Gerard) is, in fact, talking to the old (Crabbe):Buck: That's pretty good shooting. Gordon: Son, I've been doing this since before you were born. Buck (the character of course thinking he was born five centuries earlier): You think so? Gordon: Colonel, I know so.Only four years later Clarence Linden 'Buster' Crabbe had passed away, making this a nice and timely touch in an otherwise unmemorable series.

This is the last and least of the three Universal Flash Gordon serials staring Buster Crabbe. Less in the way of interesting races & peoples (rock people, oooh), less excitement, even cheaper (if possible) and more-often-reused special effects, and a promise of slightly more interesting female characters (a new Dale who seems at first a little less girlish) that largely is unfulfilled make this interesting mostly for Flash/serial completists. The last 4 episodes or so in particular are pretty dull. And as to the serial as a whole -- Ming (Charles Middleton, whose hamminess is probably the most fun element in the series) is still into Flash's love, Dale Arden, and still (for no apparent reason) wants to destroy the earth. And rule the universe. Or something. Hey, I liked it, but I can't say I'd recommend it to most people under, say, 80 years of age. It can be a tough slog if your idea of space opera is post-Star Wars; but it's also the one film that SW is most based on -- watch the crawl at the beginning of each episode, and listen to the use of Wagner -- so you'd do well to watch it, kiddies. Watched on DVD, part of the excellently transferred Image collection of all 3 serials.

Flash Gordon (Buster Crabbe), Dale Arden (Carol Hughes) and Dr. Zarkov go to the planet Mongo and fight the evil emperor Ming (Charles Middleton) who is shooting "death rays" at the Earth.I haven't seen the previous two serials so I have nothing to compare it to--but this was pretty good. It moves quickly and there's lots of action: Flash is thrown into a fiery pit; he's trapped in an avalanche; fights silly-looking robots that explode when hit; is zapped by the "Destroying Ray"; has aerial battles with Ming's warships; is caught in a fierce explosion (twice); falls down a huge mountain AND is almost drowned! WHEW! But he (logically) escapes being killed each time. Also he's joined by Prince Barin, the Forest Men and even some Rock Men.I also found this pretty progressive (for its time). Dale isn't just a timid female waiting for Flash to save her--she holds her own in fights and takes over the spaceship a few times when he's wounded. The acting is just OK--but it IS just a serial--they weren't trying to win Academy Awards. Hughes is actually the best out of all of them--Middleton is (easily) the worst. Crabbe looks tired a lot--but he was probably sick of playing Flash again and again. The special effects are primitive but I've always liked those silly little spaceships--they're a guilty favorite! Some of the sets are VERY elaborate (probably used from another movie) and the score is wonderful--until you realize you're hearing the same thing over and over.The best way to see this is one a day or (like I did) three a day. No way can you watch the whole 4 hours in one sitting!