It's hard to believe how little recognition this film has gotten over the years. Coming directly after the success of *The Empire Strikes Back*, it arrived during a time when audiences seemed to have lost touch with the earlier Flash Gordon serials and Larry "Buster" Crabbe’s performances. While viewers were clearly craving more advanced special effects and darker space adventures, *Flash* intentionally embraced camp aesthetics in a way that was entirely its own. The film managed to perfectly capture the feel of those original black-and-white serials, evoking the experience of watching them with an audience of kids in a theater. What’s more, the actors seemed to embody their characters as if they were illustrations stepping off the page and onto the screen. Max von Sydow was truly Emperor Ming, Brian Blessed embodied Prince Vultan, and Sam Jones and Melody Anderson played their roles as relative newcomers who ended up being captivating. The only real disappointment about *Flash* was its performance at the box office; it never got a continuation despite the suggestion of more adventures in the final scene.

Source on TMDB