 
In
the pre-world War I in Paris a young lad
named Andre Toulon (Greg Sestero) creates
a puppet theatre with his co-horts
entertaining many around them. He meets
up with a beautiful daughter of an Swiss
ambassador named Ilsa (Brigitta Dau) in
whoma he falls in love with.
He also meets up with an Egyptian
sorcerer named Afzel (Jack Donner) who
has stolen the "Secret of Life"
from an ancient god named Sutkei and
shows him that he can bring his wooden
puppets to life from souls of dead
bodies.
Sutkei is enraged and his servants kill
Toulon's co-horts and Afzel himself as
well as kidnapping Ilsa in which Toulon
must make a stand against them with the
help of his puppets in order to rescue
her.
There's a good shot on Older Andre Toulon talking to his puppets about
how they were originally created with
good shots on the puppets with their
heads turning and listening.
A nice moment on the servents with shots on
them lying down about to be created
wrapped like a mummy in bandages and
speaking, then rising up which looks very
impressive.
A nice shot on the younger Andre Toulon in a room creating his
wooden puppets and preparing a show which
looked very natural.
For the opening credits there's nice dark
shots on the wooden puppets.
There's many good shots surrounding Andre as well as his co-horts preparing the puppet show which looked
quite pumped up.
There's great dark shots surrounding the servents in a
dungeon type hallway discussing an evil
plan with two
tough type goons. This is a nice horror
moment on how all of it came together.
We spot many nice charming conversations
between Andre and Ilsa introducing one another and
trying to get to know one another which
looked very natural.
There's good shadow shots outside with an
attack and a nice shot on Ilsa running and screaming for help after what
she spots.
A good strong discussion between Andre and Afzel with good close
up shots on their faces talking.
Many good shots on the servents breaking
into the area of the backstage theatre
and using their deadly powers on the bad guys in
which they react well on being killed
while these three create havoc for them.
Great close up shots on the
puppets choking and stabbing the servents as
well as Afzel coming in trying
to act brave by using his powers.
There's a moment when Andre is waking up from car in a train and then getting
up and slowly walking in the hallway of
the car trying to be cautious on what he
sees which looked fairly suspenseful.
Many good blocking scene's and
camera shots with Andre struggling and
fighting the first servent but when he
punches him it looks a little lacking.
There's more good close up shots on the
puppets attacking both the second and third servent during this moment by
strangling and stabbing them.
Bottom line is that this
flick was very necessary showing what
happened in the beginning but it's a bit
confusing wondering if it does follow the
films beforehand since the characters on
these wooden puppets look similar to the
one's in the present. For example there's
a wooden Blade and he was created in
another prequel called Puppet
Master III: Toulon's Revenge.
Well it's just a case of bad writing in
my opinion. Yet, this film isn't too bad
since we show interesting locations and
the odd special effects too.
There's nice romantic moments on how
Toulon and Ilsa first met as well as his
adventures trying to save her from the
evil grasp of the First Servant which
looked nicely done.
Alot of fans were turned off by this
flick as it wasn't the same but it makes
sense on why this one was created to see
how Toulon got his powers to create his
puppets when he was just a young lad.
Try this film for yourself and see what
you think of it. It's basically a
historical story on the Puppet
Master flicks and how these
demonic bad criminals came to life as
well.
The acting is very good and
energetic. Lead actor Greg Sestero (Andre Toulon) brings
on the perfect charm as the younger Andre
Toulon with his good looks and perfect
guy next door attitude. He truly made his
part very entertaining to watch and was
not disappointed on his performance. He
also had a good strong voice when he
spoke too. A nice
surprised reaction on him when a puppet is brought back to life. A great emotional reaction on him after spotting his friends dead and does
well by using his other wooden puppets to
come to life. A nice anxious expression on him when he wakes up from sleeping in a
passenger car.
Canadian actress Brigitta Dau
(Ilsa) looked stunning in her performance and
really knew how to pull off an accent and
making it sound believeable which isn't
an easy task at all. She showed alot of
terrific energy to her role and stood out
terrifically and can be well remembered
for her performance.
Stephen Blackehart (First Servant) really knew how
to act evil and demonic as the leader of
his cult trying to kill with his powers.
He certainly gave his role a real
chilling and dark feel to what he had to
do. But however, his voice was overdubbed
with a sound effect so sometimes it's
difficult to tell his talents when he
spoke his lines.
Jack Donner (Afzel) certainly really came
across as mysterious as a wizard of some
sort and really brought on a great
serious attitude which came across very
powerfully when he needed to do so. Does well trying to seriously talk to Toulon
about his creations for what he can do
with his puppets. I
give this guy a two thumbs up since he
made sure he was the key to the story and
how he made the puppets come to life
teaching Toulon on his formula. He does a good job suffocating when his
powers backfire in a certain segment of the story.
Of course we have a special appearance by
Guy Rolfe (Older Andre Toulon) on
present day bring his charm on the screen
talking to his puppets on how they were
created which looked nicely done with
what he had to do in it.
The music for this film is
very different than what we have expected
with alot of strong and powerful
orchestra music. Does it fit the film?
Why yes it does even if it isn't the
same. There's many loud suspenseful
playing in it which sounds nicely done
for the scene's that it was used on all
composed by John Massari. |
