Puppet Master: The
Legacy (2003)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C- Film : D
Puppet Master: The Legacy is a
title that could be bestowed upon a boxed set * or possibly a new addition to
the fading, direct-to-video series. As a fan of these movies (primarily
the earlier titles), I would have been pleased as punch if I’d had the chance
to cover either of the above possibilities. Rather than being pleased, I
got the equivalent of a lump of coal tucked away in a stocking a few months
ahead of schedule. This is a cheap attempt at throwing together loads of
footage from the franchise (which I believe is still owned by Paramount, Full
Moon’s old distributor) and filming a little bit of new stuff to fill in the
gaps. I’m not quite sure why Charles Band didn’t just make a new flick
with the “plot” he devised for this one. Hell, he brought out the Super-8
camcorder long enough for about 15 minutes of mindless filler; why not just let
it run a little bit longer and find some other way to pad out the remaining 70
minutes needed to put out a DVD.
The series has been riddled with numerous plot holes
almost from the very start, but you don’t pay much heed to them - it’s B grade
- accept the movie for what it is. However, the backstory here is just
mind numbing beyond belief, and the clips provided don’t seem to have any real
order or purpose. I’m not sure how it came to this - the concept of
maniacal killer marionettes running around is enough creative fuel for a
lifetime of sequels. Its quality did degrade pretty fast, but the first 5
were good horror films (the third is weak, though the next two managed to
head back in the right direction). Now that much of the budget has almost
entirely disintegrated, we’re stuck with mash-ups like this, or possibly even
worse - Band’s other killer doll concept, Blood Dolls. These movies don’t
know how to be entertaining, even for diehard fans of the series. Aside
from the behind the scenes footage mentioned on the cover, there are no other
extras to speak of; the exception being a poorly done reel of previews
thrown together even worse than the actual film.
The picture and Dolby Digital 2.0 sound aren’t that great
- especially in the new sequences, which are noticeably poorer than the
recycled stuff. The seemingly bad picture quality here may not have to do
with the type of film used, but rather an almost subliminal drop in
quality. The writing and acting in this
case does somehow manage to bring down these scenes on all levels, or maybe
it's just the lighting and sets - who knows. The image is presented
in full screen, as is be expected of a disc of this sort; and the sound is
average stereo or mono - the packaging doesn’t make this
distinction. In either case, it’s not that great, but for anyone
interested in buying this disc, I don’t think you’ll be losing much sleep from
a less than spectacular sound mix.
For those disappointed with this terrible ending to a good
horror franchise, I did find out some very good news for fans of the series -
there’s actually another sequel in the works. To make things
even better - it doesn’t look like it’s going to suck. Finally,
to top off the goodness factor, you don’t need to buy it to watch. Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys is set
to debut on the Sci-Fi channel on December 18th, 2004. I’m sure that this
title will soon enough be gracing the DVD format, but just in case that doesn't
happen for a while, you might want to set your VCR to archive this
historical event (I'm using sarcasm, but I'm still going to recommend
recording it). This title was originally intended to be made in the
mid-90s; however, the script being used is entirely new - which could be a bad
thing. In any case, they couldn’t possibly screw it up as badly as they
managed to with this. I stress to all consumers - don’t spend a dime
on this release, especially if you’ve already got the previous titles. You'll be better off waiting until December,
or catching any subsequent rebroadcast or DVD thereof.
* While doing
research for this, I discovered that a boxed set was already released illegally
on DVD, then pulled off the market by Paramount.
- David Milchick
