Monday 2 June 2008

Ator il guerriero di ferro / Ator the Iron Warrior

After Joe D'Amato temporarily abandoned the Ator franchise after his second film failed to achieve the same heights of success as its predecessor, Al Brescia stepped into the breach to present this reinterpretation of the character.

We begin with a prologue in which Ator's brother, Trogar, is kidnapped by the power hungry sorceress Phaedra. The other members of her sorority, led by Deeva, take of dim view of this, but merely banish Phaedra as punishment.


Ator poses in front of a mirror, but where did it come from?

18 years pass and Phaedra has returned, along a the fearsome skull-masked, heavy-breathing warrior (think Skeletor meets Darth Vader, I guess) and their assorted minions to launch an attack on the King's castle on the very day of his daughter Jenna's own 18th nameday ceremony.

Though escaping the castle massacre, Jenna is captured by cloaked dwarf creatures.


Jenna, in wet t-shirt mode

Sure enough, Ator, now played by Miles O'Keeffe, comes to the rescue, while also having the first of what will be many evenly-matched fights with Trogar.


Trogar

So it continues for another hour or so in ABC-quest fashion until the forces of good and evil face off for one final battle in which rightful order is restored, or something...

Right from the opening credits, proudly announcing The Iron Warrior to be an Al Bradley film to the strains of Carlo Mario Cordio's derivative-if-heroic theme music, its obvious that this is going to be a nonpareil cheesefest.

The best things the film has going for it are the picturesque Crete locations, which do good service as the Kingdom of Dragmor, and Jenna's tissue-thin gowns.


Ator delivers a witty one-liner

The worst is that in seeking to add a soupcon more style to the proceedings, Bradley / Brescia overcompensates with the slow-motion to the point you start to imagine that the film could have been refitted for a hour-long TV spot by dint of playing everything at regular speed.

Really, however, it's the kind of film that offers predictable pleasures and which doesn't take itself too seriously anyway and, as such, is arguably immune to this kind of criticism.

1 comment:

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