“You will do this. For the good of the whole.”
It’s New Year’s Eve and space station Delta-2 reports strange radiation reading. Then all contact is lost. A crew is sent to investigate. They find that everyone on the space station is immobilized, in some sort of suspended animation. Some of them are dead. It appears they were attacked by a sort of green glowing energy. The green glow returns and the rescue crew are attacked. Then the entire space station disappears.
On space station Gamma-1, Commander Halstead (Tony Russel) orders the evacuation of all space stations except for a skeleton crew. One by one the other space stations disappear. Halstead manages to repel the aliens from Gamma-1. The remaining crew members return to Earth. Meanwhile on Earth, Captain Dubois’s (Michel Lemoine) body is taken over by the green alien force. The aliens use him to break into the Institute for Advanced Science’s nuclear reactor. He then sends a strange message to U.D. (United Democracies) offering "symbiotic partnership" for "the good of the whole".
The energy beings surround the Earth. They take over the body of Halstead’s girlfriend Lt. Connie Gomez (Lisa Gastoni). Dubois relays instructions from the aliens. They want a small envoy to act as witnesses. Halstead and his crew are taken Mars where they see all the space stations that disappeared. The aliens are using an old automated uranium mine as their base.
Through Dubois, the aliens tell Halstead and his crew that they want to use Earthlings as a host in a sort of symbiotic relationship. The aliens are from the Andromeda Galaxy. They call themselves “Diaphanoids”. Unfortunately some of the ‘hostings’ do not take. When that happens the host is killed. The outlook for Earth and everyone on it is not good.
“War of the Planets” was released in 1966 and was directed by Antonio Margheriti. It is the second in what is known as the Gamma One Quadrilogy. A series of four movies that revolved around a futuristic space station. All of the Gamma One movies were done one after the other. The sets and costumes were all reused. Also most of the stars of the first movie reprise their roles in the second. Co-produced with MGM they were originally supposed to be made for TV movies.
“War of the Planets” should not have been called “War of the Planets” since the enemy is a homeless race of aliens and not a planet with an alien race. One of the other titles used in Germany was “Diaphanoids, Bringers of Death”. Now there’s a title. As far as aliens go, these are pretty lame. It’s green smoke or green lights. As in the first movie the ray guns are gun shaped acetylene torches. The plot is basic. Alien life forces take over Earth people. Shades of the “Star Trek” Borg aliens only not cool like the Borg. Or if you prefer “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. That simile works even better.
As a whole, the movie is a little silly. But not bad. I liked “Wild, Wild World” a little better. It had more going on. In this movie there wasn’t much as far a plot devise is concerned. Still, it at least moved along at a decent pace. Considering it’s an Italian Space Opera, it’s as well done as its budget would allow.