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Released by: Dark Sky Films
Released on: 4/30/2013
Director: Steven Kostanski
Cast: Matthew Kennedy, Adam Brooks, Jeremy Gillespie, Meredith Sweeney, Conor Sweeney, Ludwig Lee
Year: 2011
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The Movie:
Manborg is set in a futuristic world where a portal to Hell was opened and war has broken out between the human race and the minions of Count Draculon (Adam Brooks). One soldier in the last of the great battles fell before the dark lord, only to be pieced back together by an unknown party. Years later, he awakens as Manborg (Matthew Kennedy), half-man half-machine thrust into a new world that's not waited around for him. The war is over, and the human race, what's left of it, is enslaved and forced to hide underground. Some are made to fight in The Octagon, a place where gladiator-types fight demons to the death. That little operation is run by Draculon's right-hand demon The Baron (Jeremy Gillespie).
Manborg gets taken captive along with #1 Man (Ludwig Lee), a martial arts expert, and the two are forced to engage in said fights to the death. Sharing cells adjacent to Manborg's cell are two other fighters: Justice (Conor Sweeney), an arrogant Australian specializing in guns, and Mina (Mererdith Sweeney), his accent-less sister, who is an Anime-looking blade expert. The group work together to survive a battle in The Octagon, but Manborg is pulled aside and forced to fight The Champion. Once his task is accomplished, he works with the others to escape and put an end to Count Draculon's reign.
If you're not familiar with the filmmaking group Astron-6, this movie may not work for you. Astron-6 makes short films paying tribute to direct-to-video type movies as well as low-budget knock-off flicks that “borrow†from obvious bigger budget sources. With this in mind, their style makes more sense and helps with the enjoyment factor. These people aren't out to necessarily make a 'good' movie, but they are out to make one that's fun to watch. It's chock full of tributes to their influences, movie clichés, and some pretty funny dialogue. Little touches like #1 Man's voice being dubbed and the Australian's accent being horrible should remind you of countless characters just like them, as seen in so many wonderful piece of crap movies from the VHS heyday.
A mixture of special effects techniques is used for the visual treats. Aside from computer-generated backgrounds and settings, latex and make-up are utilized and look pretty damned awesome. Count Draculon has two different make-up jobs and they look like something straight out of the early 90s. And stop motion animation plays a big part too, bringing some big demon monsters to the screen. Wicked good stuff that just adds to the fun of the movie.
One drawback of the movie (probably the only one) is the stylistic look. Seemingly the entire thing was filmed in front of a green screen, which even done under larger budget conditions means that things look like they were filmed on a green screen. Perhaps the low-budget nature of the movie forced the director to be more creative with his green screen capabilities and decided to go the more comic book look. At any rate, the look might turn some off, but for this viewer the distraction went away after a little while.
Lots of genre tribute/homage movies come out these days, and while many miss the mark entirely, Aston-6 succeeds with Manborg. They clearly make nods to a number of movies without being too loud about it, they pay tribute to the movies they love without making fun of them, and they put out a short movie (70 minutes) that is really entertaining. And stick around to the very end of the disc. A fake trailer for “Biocop†follows the feature as well as an interesting piracy warning message.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The movie is presented in an aspect of 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, with an image that delivers some nice colors. As mentioned above, the movie has that comic book stylized look to it, so the image isn't a typical one. The audio is a 2.0 stereo track and the sound comes through at a balanced level. Dialogue is clear and the music and sound effects don't drown things out. Pretty basic track. No authoring issues noticed.
Lots of extras, including a couple of really good commentaries that go into the typical territory you would expect, but they keep things animated and moving along throughout. Really good stuff and well worth the time if commentaries are your bag. The one with three participants is the better of the two, mainly as it's a conversation rather than a monologue. Other items include five minutes of deleted/alternate scenes, and five minutes of bloopers, all against a green cloth. A 15-minute behind-the-scenes featurette has some entertaining moments, including a phoney actor freakout segment. “Stop Motion Montage†and a “VFX Montage†take up a collective three minutes. A short film called “Fantasy Beyond†is a stop-motion piece that runs seven and-a-half minutes, and a Q&A from the movie's premiere runs around six and-a-half minute. Lastly is a bunch of interviews with the cast and crew conducted by a chubby guy in bad lighting. These interviews are made to look like those junket interviews but making fun of them. The play all function is the only way to go. 22-minutes worth of interviews goes by pretty quick the way these people do it. And again there's the fake trailer for "Biocop" at the end of the feature. Make sure you watch it. The director says in the Q&A that he's gotten such a great response from it that he almost has no choice but to make it. Let's hope he does, as it looks awesome.
The Final Word:
This is probably one of those you either get or you don't. Those who do are in for a treat; those who don't probably won't make it far into the flick. The person you're watching it with may say “this movie sucks†and go to bed. It has happened at least once. Entertaining from start to finish, and with a gang of extras, this disc comes highly recommended.
