do you think lynch was influenced by flash gordon (1980) when making this

there was a Flash aspect to some of the FX and some sets . maybe it was the same FX/set design team?

Whatever the influence was, I don't think I could watch this again. I tried for almost 40 years to get through the whole thing. I finally did, and I realize I did not miss much. Would rather watch Flash.

Also, I thought I saw some similarity to the Never Ending Story

They were both Dino de Laurentiis productions from the early 80s, so that's probably how any similarities came in.

(OK, technically Gordon was filmed in 79)