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Flash Gordon

Flash Gordon

Science Fiction · Adventure · Action · 1980

A football player and his mates travel to the planet Mongo and find themselves fighting the tyranny of Ming the Merciless to save Earth.

Movie details

Flash Gordon

“Pathetic earthlings...who can save you now?”

1980 Science Fiction · Adventure · Action 1h 51m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.5 / 10

65.6K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

83 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

58 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.3 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

A football player and his mates travel to the planet Mongo and find themselves fighting the tyranny of Ming the Merciless to save Earth.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Flash Gordon?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Star Trek Into Darkness

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Mike Hodges

Written by

Lorenzo Semple Jr.

Sam J. Jones

Sam J. Jones

Flash Gordon

Melody Anderson

Melody Anderson

Dale Arden

Max von Sydow

Max von Sydow

The Emperor Ming

Chaim Topol

Chaim Topol

Dr. Hans Zarkov

Ornella Muti

Ornella Muti

Princess Aura

Timothy Dalton

Timothy Dalton

Prince Barin

Brian Blessed

Brian Blessed

Prince Vultan

Court is in session

Put Flash Gordon on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Adrenaline Seeker

“Momentum is a formal choice.”

The velocity sharpens instinct and tension, making every beat land before self-importance can settle in.

The prosecution The Auteur Devotee

“Speed as an alibi.”

The film races past its weak spots and hopes acceleration will keep the audience from inspecting the evidence.