Year of release- 1989
Director- Robert Dyke
Stars- Walter Koenig, Bruce Campbell, Leigh Lombardi
The film follows two veteran space shuttle pilots, Colonel
Grant played by Walter Koenig (Star Trek)
and Tanner played by the brilliant Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead series) who are flying a routine mission. However the two
pilots soon stumble across a vast spacecraft, of which neither the pilots nor
NASA have any clue or information about. Colonel Grant suits up and leaves the
shuttle to investigate. He eventually finds a metal pod embedded in a huge hole
in the mysterious ship’s hull. Apparently not having seen Alien Colonel Grant decides to bring the mysterious alien pod on
board the shuttle. The two pilots eventually return to earth with the pod in
hand and it ultimately transpires that the pod originates from the surface of
the Moon, and both the pilots become eager to investigate its origins. However,
when the pod opens and proceeds to build a robotic killing machine of its own
accord, which then go’s on a rampage in the NASA base, the need to investigate
its origins becomes a little more urgent. Once on the Moon Colonel Grant and
Tanner discover to their horror that the alien pod that they brought back, has
some friends, and their a bit pissed off.
This film is a good example of what happens when a
fairly decent concept becomes polluted by poor writing and a bizarre urge by
the film makers to try and take from just about every other Sci-fi film. In
this film we see plagiaristic nods towards 2001:
A Space Odyssey, Star Wars: A New
Hope and unsurprisingly, Star Trek
to name just a few. The film becomes so bland, and filled with cliché that not
even the hugely energetic and fun performance of the one and only Bruce
Campbell can save it. The film is also marred by the wooden performance of Walter
Koenig, who seems to reflect the feelings of the audience as he becomes increasingly
distant and cardboard like as the plot progresses. But hey, at least he isn’t
doing a ‘Russian’ accent.
The film does have its good points however. The practical
effects on both the sets and the robots in the film are surprisingly well
executed despite the films noticeably low budget, which shows very alarmingly in
one or two moments throughout the film. The films score is also very good,
although noticeably reminiscent in parts to that of 2001: A Space Odyssey, it still manages to deliver tension.
Overall however this film is a turd, and no matter how
much you polish a turd by adding Bruce Campbell or enjoyable practical effects,
it’s still a turd. While watching Moontrap
it is impossible to ignore the poor script, pointless scenes, misguided ‘comedy’,
lack of drive and just general blandness, enough to enjoy the sometimes worthy sceptical
of Bruce Campbell fighting killer alien robots with an M16. This disappointment
gets a 3.5/10 from me, this is wasted opportunity at its most boring.
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