In my review of Father’s Day, I talked about the low-budget Canadian filmmaking group, Astron-6. The group included Adam Brooks, Jeremy Gillespie, Matt Kennedy, Conor Sweeney, and Steven Kostanski, all of whom had various skills. Steven Kostanski had loved movies since he was a kid, having seen Terminator 2: Judgement Day when he was six. After making a series of short films, the group decided to put together their first feature-length movie. Much of the filming took place on a shoestring budget in Kostanski’s parent’s garage, making costumes out of trash. Kostanski co-wrote the script with Jeremy Gillespie, while the other members acted, worked on visual effects, and choreographed fights. Production began in 2008, but due to extensive post-production work, the film’s release wasn’t until 2011. At Fantastic Fest that year in September, Manborg premiered to a ravenous audience.
%
Rating
Synopsis
The forces of Hell, led by Count Draculon (Adam Brooks), are invading and laying waste on the Earth. During the invasion, a lone soldier (Matthew Kennedy) tries confronting Draculon but is killed by the firing squad. Draculon’s forces have conquered Earth years into the future, and the lone soldier has been brought back as Manborg. Part man and part machine, Manborg sets out on a revenge quest as he wanders the streets of Mega-Death City. Along the way, he meets resistance members Justice (Conor Sweeney), Mina (Meredith Sweeney), and #1 Man (Ludwig Lee). Unfortunately, they are captured and brought before The Baron (Jeremy Gillespie), who sentences them to death by combat. Thankfully, our heroes survive and join together to take on the forces of Hell and save Earth. Will Manborg get his revenge, or will Count Draculon stop him and his friends in their tracks?
Review
Considering the circumstances behind its making, it’s impressive that Manborg came together, especially on a minuscule budget. Say what you will about the movie, but you can’t deny that the Astron-6 team put in tons of creativity. Everything looks incredibly cheap, but it has a certain charm to it, like watching a movie made by friends. You can tell the filmmakers had a lot of fun making this, even if it was challenging to put together. The low-tech feel reminds me of how the effects artists for Star Wars cobbled together whatever random junk they found. There is some crude stop-motion animation, costumes made with wires and pieces of plastic, and copious amounts of fake blood. It shows how much imagination was put into this and how Astron-6 had great potential to do more. Despite everything else I will say in this review, I admire what the filmmakers tried.
Unfortunately, despite the team’s creativity and passion put into this, the movie isn’t very good. Everyone in the cast plays their parts knowing that they’re in a cheesy movie, but not in an endearing way. It feels like a group of hipsters decided to make an intentionally bad movie that takes jabs at genre cinema. If they wanted to make a parody, that’s fine, but being self-aware doesn’t always work. For example, the cast of Blazing Saddles acted as if they were in an actual Western, making it funnier. Not only that, but even at 70 minutes in length, the film feels padded to reach feature length. A better showcase of what Astron-6 could do with a low budget was Father’s Day, which I highly recommend. Otherwise, Manborg has its moments, but it feels like one of several intentionally bad movies that end up being just bad.
Buy Manborg from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3y9AxLm.
Disclosure: The above link is an affiliate link, which means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.
