When the Moon is knocked out of orbit by unknown forces and wreaks havoc on the Earth’s weather, a plane carrying professional football player Flash Gordon (Sam Jones) and self-professed NYC girl Dale Arden (Melody Anderson) is forced down and the pair are thrust into the arms of Dr. Hans Zarkov (Topol) — the lone scientist who knows the cause of the planet’s peril. Using the old “my telephone is in the rocket” trick, Dr. Zarkov shanghi’s the couple and launches all three of them into space and toward the source of the cosmic disruption. Thus begins Flash’s great adventure as he unites the many provinces of Mongo in revolution against the forces of Ming the Merciless (Max Von Sydow), the man responsible for Earth’s imminent destruction.

Dino De Laurentis‘s 1980 big-screen version of Alex Raymond‘s Flash Gordon (directed by Mike Hodges) has always resided somewhere in my top 5 favorite action movies of all time. Rubbing elbow’s with Star Wars (now unfortunately known as Episode 4), Big Trouble in Little China, Highlander (another awesome film scored by Queen), and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Strong action sequences and well-placed tongue-in-cheek humor, along with the alluring visual style of production designer Danilo Donati (Caligula, Red Sonja), and a thunderously rockin’ soundtrack by Queen equal a can’t-miss combination for a great movie. And while it didn’t rock the box office in its initial release, in the many years since, it has absolutely joined the ranks of classic cult sci-fi cinema.

Now, over twenty-five years after the film’s release comes the Saviour of the Universe Edition. The film has been remastered with 2.35:1 anomorphic widescreen and 5.1 Dolby Surround and beautifully done up in a flip-top package design with cover art and a collectible postcard insert created by incredible comic artist Alex Ross. It includes an eye-opening interview with Ross, where he conveys just how much De Laurentis’s Flash Gordon influenced his life, both personally and professionally. As a long-time rabid fan of Alex Ross’s artwork, it was satisfying to see just how similarly we were affected by this movie.

The DVD’s additional bonus features include the first episode of the 1936 Flash Gordon theatre serial “The Planet of Peril,” starring Buster Crabbe (Flash), Jean Rogers (Dale), Frank Shannon (Zarkov), Charles Middleton (Ming), and Priscilla Lawson (Aura). You can see shades of the set-design, and overall campiness that Hodges and Semple infused into their 1980 update. This is really fun to watch.

There’s also an insightful interview with screenwriter Lorenzo Semple, Jr. that takes a look into the sometimes absurd creative process during his writing of the Flash screenplay. While this interview with Semple gives us a interesting and at times surreal view at the inner workings of the film, the absence of a commentary track by Semple, director Mike Hodges, or any of the key players from the film is a bit of a let down. Also included is the obligatory original theatrical trailer, as well as a teaser trailer for the current Sci Fi Channel series which amounts to the logo being, um, flashed across the screen for all of five seconds.

Unfortunately there’s a noticeable absence of some of the special features that were included in the Silver Anniversary European release, which included commentary tracks by director Mike Hodges and Brian Blessed (Vultan), additional interviews, production stills, and concept art.

But overall the remastered audio and video, Alex Ross’s original art, and the two included featurettes treat this movie with the respect it deserves and make for a nice package. If you don’t already a own a copy of the initial bare release of Flash Gordon, the Saviour of the Universe Edition makes a decent addition to any respectable sci-fi geek’s movie library.