DVD Review: 'Manborg'

Back when home video really exploded in the early 80s one of the best parts of it was all the b-movie gems you’d find in the video store. Crazy concepts like The Toxic Avenger or The Re-Animator really seemed to explode back then. These films felt different than the grindhouse pictures of the 70s, these movies blended comedy and horror, purposely or not but perfectly.  Now with Aston-6’s Manborgthey are bringing their 80’s nostalgia-fueled ideas to the forefront. Manborg at times is like something that fell out of a time portal with how much like those old genre movies it is.

In the near future during the Hell Wars the human race wages against the evil demonic robotic Nazi vampire forces of Count Draculon. After the Count kills and drinks the blood of his brother, an unnamed soldier decides to take him on one-on-one and loses. His body is secreted away and outfitted with robotics, turning him into MANBORG!! Manborg awakens even further in the future after being put into stasis. After venturing out into a world unknown and meeting #1 Man both are overtaken by the forces of Mega-Death City. Now captured and thrown in with other resistance fighters in a dungeon for gladiator battles Manborg must figure out his place in this new world and whether or not he can be a hero and defeat Count Draculon.

Let’s be honest here; this movie is beautifully terrible. This movie transcends the phrase “so bad it's good” to something else. All the people involved have taken the baton from old classic Troma into a whole new realm.  They are having so much fun on screen with trying to make it both horrific and funny at the same time it’s astounding. Everything is done on such a subpar level that you have to purely enjoy how far they went in crafting this. This movie starts with a Supernatural WWII Robocop origin. The vampire Nazi things are guys in make-up and old school stop-motion all composited poorly over the green-screened background. This leaves you in awe since there is not much setup other than some text. All of the sudden from that you go to this world that’s a mash up of Judge Dredd (the comic) and background art from Mortal Kombat 3.

And that’s another thing; this movie feels to have so many references and influences other than old 80s home video b-movies. All the people in the movie have a grainy look over them that make them resemble those realistic photo sprites from the early Mortal Kombat game.  The heroes all look like they come from the notebook class sketches of a rock and roll fan.  Now this movie really has a lot of problems if judged by the standards of bigger movies. It looks cheaper than all those terrible things that come on SyFy Channel, so there is no real reason to talk about how bad the acting, shooting, and score are.  Manborg is what it is and it’s something you should know going in if it’s the type of movie that is for you. This is for the audiences that love really bad genre movies and if that is something you really enjoy then this is the movie for you.