In a contemporary review, "Variety" noted that the film had a "weak screenplay" and that Cozzi's direction "seemed to have no apparent plan". "Variety" commented that "what is surprising for a picture of this genre, however, is the lacklustre photography by Paul Beeson and Roberto D'Ettorre and special effects by Armando Valcauda and German Natali", and that the "photography almost never convinces that this is actually taking place anywhere but on the movie screen and special effects seem little more than poor imitations of what's been done before". The "Monthly Film Bulletin" noted the "mediocre special effects and a clumsily protracted finale", but stated that "Starcrash" "intermittently achieves a kind of lunatic appeal as it lurches pell-mell from one casually fabricated climax to the next".