The understated, minimalist 'Flash Gordon' showed admirable restraint in scenery, costuming, and acting.  JUST KIDDING, it's a completely over-the-top circus spectacle of indulgence and various aspects of a film crew working on movies with vastly different tones except they're all working on the same movie.  But FLASH means a lot to a lot of people, notably middle-aged white men who were 6 in 1980 and who embrace this movie tighter than they clutch their ticket to Autograph Alley at ComicCon to get a signed pic of  the guy who played '3rd Hawkman In Attack Scene' for $25.  So we try and plumb the depths, such as they are.