Rating 1.9 out of 5: This movie wanted to compete with Star Wars, but everyone forgot, despite Ennio Morricone’s music.

You know Star Wars, its scrolling text, Darth Vader, R2-D2, its princess… it’s all there, but much less well is Humanoid, an Italian sci-fi film that plagiarizes George Lucas’ work without any qualms.

The Humanoid, released two years after A New Hope and a year before The Empire Strikes Back, wanted to compete with Star Wars by taking most of its elements, but with less budget and talent, and today the film is completely forgotten. However, it does have an Ennio Morricone soundtrack!

On a peaceful planet, Metropolis is ruled by Big Brother, but his brother, Lord Grail, exiled after he tried to usurp the throne, plots revenge with the help of Lady Agatha and mad scientist Dr. Craspin. Using an energy called “Capitron”, Kraspin is able to create an army of super humanoids for the Grail.

To recover some, he attacks the lab and the employee Barbara Gibson escapes just in time. He joins his student Tom Tom – who has psychic powers – but quickly, Kraspin sends Golob, one of the “super humans” responsible for tracking him down.

You’ll no doubt recognize Richard Kiel, aka “The Shark” from The Spy I Loved and Moonraker, in his first major role. He notably stars alongside Ivan Rasimov, Corinne Clary (also seen in Moonraker), Barbara Bach (the James Bond girl from The Spy Who I Fell In Love with) and Venantino Venantini, as well as veteran Arthur Kennedy as Dr. Craspin.

At the helm of this stunt project is director Aldo Lado (a.k.a. George B. Lewis, if that sounds like George Lucas if you do a quick read). An assistant director on the Italian westerns Bertolucci’s Le Conformiste and Gerard Pires’ Fantasia chez les ploucs, Lado directed decent genre films before signing on to co-write this space drama.

In the desire to copy Star Wars, its aesthetics and imagery, the humanoid was not remembered at all, except, of course, by the moviegoers of Nanarland. Still, it’s clearly worth a look, precisely because of its similarities to Star Wars and just the right dose of what it contains. It is not available on DVD in France, but it is available (in English) on YouTube.