MAX STEEL (2016) *

Movies have taught me a lot of things.  Probably one of the most important lessons I have learned is that if your father dies while performing a top-secret experiment and his former partner shows up offering you the world, you should probably run in the opposite direction.  This Max Steel guy obviously doesn’t watch as many movies as I do.

The plot of Max Steel is Mattel saw how much money Hasbro was making with the Transformers movies and tried to cash in with a film version of a toy I never heard of.  Too bad it followed the Jem and the Holograms business model with its low-tech vibe and ever lower budget.  (Right down to the annoying robot sidekick.)  It’s also similar in many ways to the recent Power Rangers flick as it’s a dark, dour, and grim affair.  Like that film, it keeps finding excuses to keep Max out of his power suit during its action sequences to further skimp on the budget. 

I’ve always been a believer that Maria Bello and Andy Garcia are two actors incapable of giving bad performances.  Max Steel is a movie that puts my beliefs to the test.  It’s not that they don’t try, it’s that the material is so inert that they are rarely ever given an opportunity to exhibit any sign of a pulse.  Ben Winchell, who plays Max, resembles a low-key Taylor Lautner.  He looks the part and all, but he has almost no screen presence.  

Director Stewart (Sorority Row) Hensler has no real discernable style.  He stages everything in a drab way that prevents the film from gathering any momentum.  The confusing editing, especially early on with all the flashbacks, also adds to the movie’s woes. 

The action is non-existent too.  Whenever something looks like it’s going to happen, things come to a grinding halt with no resolution.  The final fight is so darkly lit that you can’t tell what’s going on.  It also doesn’t help that the super suits the hero and villain wear look like a clunky combination of Power Ranger and Iron Man cosplay.  I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that Max Steel is almost entirely made of recycled material.  It deserves to be thrown in the recycling bin, that’s for sure.