What I'm...Reading??: Puppet Master #1
Well, this is different! I take a quick look at the first issue of the new Puppet Master comic series.
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Filtering by Tag: Puppet Master
What I'm Watching: July, 2010
Hello, horrorheads!
Probably the biggest news is that I saw Predators this weekend. What a movie! Light, popcorny fun, a good guilty pleasure type of movie, and definitely a worthy sequel to the original. There's a few issues with it, but overall I was thoroughly entertained for 90 minutes and change.
The acting was pretty good from everyone involved, and it was fun to watch the characters trying to figure things out and not get dead. If you're a fan of the movies, I definitely say you gotta see this movie.
In more closer to home stuff, right here in Trisk Labs, as has been obvious, I have something old and something new in the Puppet Master movies. I've already covered the new remastering of PM1, and I want to write up my thoughts now that I've actually watched the whole thing instead of just looked at images. That's a post in and of itself.
But the something new is Puppet Master: Axis of Evil, the first, new PM movie in ten years. Since it's brand new, I don't plan to do a full on look at the movie like my other reviews, but I do have some thoughts on it.
Sigh, it's not bad, for a Puppet Master movie, but it's not great either. There've been worse PM movies, that's for sure, but it doesn't quite reach the greatness of those first few films.
The movie just looks weird, for starters. The movie starts off with some new footage spliced in with scenes from the first movie, notably William Hickey's role as Toulon and Blade's scampering around the grounds of the Bodega Bay. But the differences between the original and new are VERY noticable. I don't know what they filmed the new movie on, but it has a very digital look, and it just doesn't mesh well with the classic, filmic look. It becomes very noticable when people are supposed to be in the same hallway, but in two different movies. I could get really geeky and talk about the depth of field, and the compression artifacts, but you get the idea.
The plot is pretty standard, as a kid who was friends with Toulon discovers the puppets, and just so happens to run into the same Nazis that chased down the puppet master when he returns home. How coincidental. Oh, and they're also trying to blow up the bomb factory the guy's girlfriend works at, as well as come between the boy and the girl. Convenient.
The acting isn't that great either, and the making of features on the disc probably explain why. This movie was filmed in 13 days. That's very fast for a movie, and they could have used a little more time to finesse the perfomances some more.
But I don't hate it. It's got some nice kills, the new puppet isn't so bad (Although he's a bit on the nose with the plot), and the plot may be standard, but it gets the job done and is a solid kind of standard. Stick with what works, right? But then the movie fails to end. It is all setup for the next movie. Ugh. I hated it when Puppet Master 4 was the first half of Puppet Master 5, and I hate it now. I want a complete story from my movies, not a setup for the next film which may or may not be made.
In fairness, this is a Full Moon movie, and they'll surely shove it out sooner or later. They crank these puppies out like a cor...meat grinder. ;)
Maybe I'll be happier once the next chapter is out and I can see the 'whole' film, but that is a huge beef of mine. Definitely worth seeing for fans of the series, but not the best entry, with some weird visual touches.
Now I gotta get back to the dungeon and watch the next movie for review, which just arrived the other day! Keep an eye out for more snakes, and more puppets shortly.
J
Puppet Remastered
Hey, horror heads!
As I've mentioned before, somewhere, Full Moon has just released a newly remastered DVD (And Blu-Ray) of the 20 year old, original Puppet Master film. Actually, you can currently only get it with the limited edition Puppet Master trunk that has the NEW PM movie, Axis of Evil. The single release isn't until the end of July, so the limited editions get them a month earlier. You can check out my pictures of the trunk at my Flickr Page.
I knew when this announcement came out, it would be my eventual goal to redo the screencaps in the Puppet Master 1 review, with newer, better, wider screened images. That took me all of a day to get around to doing. In fact, those images have been uploaded to the review for a whole day now, as I write this. I'm going to do a supplemental review of the movie in a little bit, to give my thoughts on the remastered edition, but I thought it would be fun to look at the original screencaps I made with the new versions, and pick over them with way too much detail than they probably deserve.
So, follow me into the rest of the entry and let's see what there is to see...
Master of Puppets
Hey, horrorheads!
I kinda like doing these little post mortems on my reviews, kinda picking my own brain a little in ways that don't seem appropriate for the review, so I'm working through the backlog, and PM1 definitely deserves a few extra comments.
Oh, Puppet Master and Full Moon. You guys are so responsible for this site existing. So much of my formative years was spent watching these movies. Blade is my personal Freddy Krueger. Or something.
Part of me really wanted to make Puppet Master the 13th review on this site, because of its significance (Although I believe I saw Full Moon's Pit & the Pendulum before it but PM solidified my love), but I had this huge stack of Full Moon movies waiting for review, and I absolutely had to be the first one be Puppet Master. I just couldn't wait any longer!
This was another movie where I was not wanting for images and captions. I tossed out a number of images that it was actually painful to leave aside, and I hope I used the cream of the crop. I also had a number of alternate captions for images that did get used, and it was tough to decide.
The biggest change with this review was titling my in depth look "The Whole Blood Mess". When I looked at the final reviews, it was always bugging me that it zoomed right from synopsis to my review, and it looked wrong. I'm still not happy with that title, but it gets the job done and breaks it up.
It was good to have something relatively short after the monster that was Waxwork 2. I still need to sort out how to cut these down, but I haven't had THAT many complaints yet, so I'm just keeping on. This actually feels like a good length for this movie, and the images break it up well.
The biggest thing with this review is something yet to come. I've actually got plans to go back and retweak this review in a few months. The content will remain the same, I'm just going to make it...better.
I've got the big bad Puppet Master boxed set, so have no fear. Blade will return shortly. And the movies just get worse and worse, trust me. Unlike with Waxwork and Corpse Grinders, I want to space out the Puppet Master movies. Doing all six or so that I have here in one long run would have gotten boring for me and you guys too, I presume. It's one thing to do an original and sequel in succession, it's another to do every movie ever. I'd also hate to be done with them all so soon.
Full Moon alone will keep me in movies for a long, long time.
Speaking of, I need to pick out my next monsterpiece to go through. See you in April!
J