Danny
(Levi Fiehler) is a young man stricken with polio who yearns to do his part to
fight the Germans in WWII. He finds
Andre Toulon’s hidden stash of killer puppets and learns the secret to bring
them to life. When Danny finds out the
Germans and Japanese are plotting to blow up an American factory, he enlists
the help of the puppets to stop them.
David
DeCoteau is back in the director’s chair for this ninth Puppet Master flick and
it’s not one of his better efforts. Like
most Puppet Master movies, Axis of Evil really struggles whenever the puppets
aren’t front and center doing their thing.
That unfortunately accounts for much of the running time. The opening sequence (which depends on extensive
use of footage from the first movie) is particularly sluggish. The scenes of Fiehler’s home life are often mawkish,
especially when he’s dealing with his affliction or when he’s hanging out with
his gung-ho brother. The pacing in these
scenes are rather leaden and DeCoteau does very little to help move them along. It also doesn’t help that they contain actors
who are almost as wooden as the puppets themselves.
Speaking
of the puppets, it takes seemingly forever before they finally are given a
chance to shine. These sequences taken
on their own merits, aren’t bad. The Leech
Woman pukes into a guy’s sushi, Tunneller drills into a dude’s skull, and the new
Ninja puppet kills people using Ninja stars.
However, there really needed to be more sequences of this caliber for Axis
of Evil to have been successful.
The
addition of a Japanese “Dragon Lady” villain (who is hiding out in Chinatown
because “Americans can’t tell the difference between Chinese and Japanese”)
gives this entry a slightly different flavor.
It’s certainly one of the better-looking Puppet Master movies as
DeCoteau achieves a decent amount of period detail on a meager budget. (We also get at least one funny, if
inexplicable L.A. Confidential reference.)
Too bad the ending (which leaves the door wide open for yet another sequel)
is so abrupt and unsatisfying.
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