Comwayon
A Disappointing Continuation
Lachlan Coulson
This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.
Lela
The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.
Staci Frederick
Blistering performances.
Leofwine_draca
This kind of cheesy adventure yarn was a staple of my youth - and every time I see one of these films, it brings a tide of nostalgia pouring through me. WARLORDS OF ATLANTIS is a film which just wouldn't stand up to a modern audience's viewing - it's not politically correct, the acting is poor, and the special effects not particularly effective. But to a child, the film becomes a wonderful story of monsters, aliens, and plenty of protracted fight scenes. The film starts off well with an excellently animated octopus attacking a boat and dragging the survivors to a new world. This octopus attack is really quite splendid, okay so it's not original but the model effects really do look good. After there things can only go downhill, but there are still plenty of laughs and fun to be had as our heroes enter a weird society of primitive gill-men and alien rulers.The chief nasty bloke in this case is Michael Gothard, a man who lent his unique persona to such schlock as SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN and the respectable JACK THE RIPPER before committing suicide in the early '90s. He always reminded me of a British Klaus Kinski. Gothard is at his sneering best here as the evil alien commander, although sadly he is given far too little screen time and not much to do apart from stand around and bark orders. Opposing him as the face of good is a solid Doug McClure, whose shirt gets torn off yet again and who pushes his way through the film with his own brand of wooden acting. He might have his critics (and many of them), but for me, McClure will always be a hero. Much like modern action stars, he's a man who never gets injured, who always wins out in the end. and who gets to fight loads of baddies and monsters single-handedly.Which brings me on to the monsters, which look a lot like dinosaurs. Sadly these are of the back-projected variety (the cost of the octopus must have eaten the budget), and even if they look quite nice, the projection does look awful, much like in AT THE EARTH'S CORE. You can almost smell the rubber on some of these monsters. The film reaches new depths with an attack of flying fish (a truly unbelievable scene), but I quite liked a toothy snake thing which came out of a swamp to grab somebody's leg. If your idea of fun is a cheesy and amusing film, then this one is for you. Packed with effects and action scenes which seem to go on forever, any child would love it. I would rate it as better than AT THE EARTH'S CORE, but not quite as good as that all-time favourite, THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT.
malcolmgsw
This is really the cheesiest sci fi film that I have seen in a long time.It is a cross between Jules Verne and Ray Harryhausen but doesn't manage to be either.Instead of stop motion animation it uses men in rubber suits who are totally unconvincing.There is a giant octopus that beats the vessel with a gold statue and is probably the best of the mirth inducing moments that constantly occur throughout this film.It is one of those films that is so consistently bad that it is almost good in a way.Everything about the film is second rate from the acting through to the effects down to the scripts.Not worth a second look once was enough.
jfgibson73
If I had seen this movie when I came out, or when I was young, I'm sure I would think of it fondly. Going in cold as an adult in the summer of 2009, I wasn't really entertained much.The arguments for this movie seem to be that 1) It is just an entertaining fantasy not to be taken seriously; 2) The creatures were done before CGI and are therefore more more soulful 3) Anyone who doesn't enjoy the visuals should appreciate this movie for its well-written characters and interesting plot that has so much more to offer than the trash coming out of Hollywood today. I could dispute each of these, but the bottom line is that I DID enjoy several moments in this movie, and it kept me mostly interested all the way through. I just didn't care much about it overall.I would describe the quality of the story as being on par with some of the weaker episodes of the original Star Trek series. My favorite part was the giant octopus, but it was a little underwhelming after having seen what Gore Verbinski was able to do with the Kraken in the second POTC movie. Sorry, but sometimes technical advancements can make a better film, in the right hands. I prefer a CGI creature that movies with economy over a puppet monster that just stands in one place and roars.But that isn't a reason not to watch this movie. I'm sure many fans of b-movie sci-fi and adventure would find this perfectly enjoyable. For me, it isn't any one specific thing, I just was unsatisfied with the movie as a whole.
Paul Andrews
Warlords of Atlantis starts deep in outer-space as the credits play over a large ball of flaming Martian rock as it hurtles towards a prehistoric Earth & ends up in the Sea... The film then switches to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean during the Victorian period. A boat named the 'Texas Rose' slowly sails along, on-board is a rich Professor (Donald Bisset) & his son Charles Aitken (Peter Gilmore) who hope to find the legendary lost underwater city of Atlantis using American Greg Collinson's (Doug McClure) specially designed diving-bell. Captain Daniels (Shane Rimmer) warns the Professor about these waters, waters where boats have been known to just vanish but no one is interested & they carry on regardless. Both Charles & Greg dive deep under the Ocean's surface & encounter an aquatic dinosaur that tries to eat them, they also discover a solid gold ancient relic which the crew above manage to get aboard. Unfortunately for them a giant Octopus attacks the Texas Rose & the crew, Grogan (Hal Galili), Fenn (John Ratzenberger), Jacko (Derry Power) & the Captain are taken while the young deckhand Sandy (Ashley Knight) is left behind with the now wounded Professor. I'm not quite sure how but everyone ends up in a huge underwater bubble which houses the world of Atlantis & it's various cities. They are welcomed by a guy in a silver sequin dress named Atmir (Micheal Gothard) who takes them to the 3rd city of Troy, Charles is deemed clever so is separated from the group & taken to meet the supreme council who appear to be lead by Atraxon (Daniel Massey) & Astril (Cyd Charisse) while the others are condemned to a life of slavery & thrown into the dungeon's. Being a slave for the rest of his life is an idea which Greg isn't too keen on so with the help of a rather good looking female slave named Delphine (Lea Brodie) who luckily for any male viewers wears a skimpy cleavage revealing dress & some of the local wildlife they decide to make a break for it, but will they be able to rescue Charles & make it back to the diving-bell before they are either eaten by some monster or killed by the Atlanteans?Directed by Kevin Connor this was the fourth & final 'lost world' film he & star Doug McClure made together, the first being The Land that Time Forgot (1974), the second was At the Earth's Core (1976), after that came The People that Time Forgot (1977) & Warlords of Atlantis rounded of the loose series of films which is probably my favourite overall. The highly entertaining script by Brian Hayles moves along like a rocket & is never neither dull or boring which always helps & it also manages to combine the swashbuckling adventure, fantasy & Sci-Fi elements that make these types of films so much fun to good effect throughout. It never takes itself too seriously with references to the Mary Celeste coming to mind & the bizarre notion that the Atlanteans are in fact Martians. There are a few plots holes & slightly underdeveloped ideas but hey, nothings perfect right? The characters are likable & the treacherous crew sub plot worked well, I was a little surprised about the end as Doug strangely didn't get the girl this time. Like the previous Connor films the monsters aren't exactly the pinnacle of realism, in fact most people would probably describe them as poor but I'd rather have the charm & personality of a man in a rubber monster suit than a cold lifeless fake looking computer graphic any day of the week. Along with the giant Octopus, flying prehistoric Piranha fish, dinosaurs & large Eels I especially liked the giant Millipede/fish creature that rises out of the water a couple of times, great stuff. I was impressed with the production design credited to Elliot Scott & the sets in particular, some of the Atlantis cityscapes were obviously just flat matte paintings but they looked good overall, from the dungeons to the higher cities which have a palatial feel to them & as a whole Warlords of Atlantis is quite a handsome film to watch. Forgetting about some of the less than spectacular special effects on a technical level Warlords of Atlantis is solid throughout, the acting is OK & I personally think the hot Lea Brodie as the love interest Delphine is easily the most attractive out of the four films & makes for the best heroine, the photography is nice enough & it has an all round decent polish about it. I really liked Warlords of Atlantis, much like Connor's other monster films this is terrific fun if your in the right mood & can forgive the generally dodgy special effects & as we all know good special effects don't necessarily guarantee a good film so surely the opposite is true as well, right? Well it is in this case, great entertainment for all the family & well worth watching.