Director: Kevin Connor
Starring: Doug McClure, Peter Gilmore, Shane Rimmer, Lea Brodie, John Ratzenberger
Running time: 96 minutes
Certificate: PG
Extras: None
Synopsis: A group of explorers and sailors discover a gold statue, but little do they know it belongs to the lost city of Atlantis and a huge octopus is coming to take it back. A number of the crew soon find themselves in the lost city and must fight to return home…
This third release from StudioCanal may not be produced by Amicus Productions, but it is still directed by Kevin Connor and stars Doug McClure. If it ain’t broke then don’t fix it. Only problem is, this is all getting rather repetitive. Doug McClure plays the exact same character he portrayed in both THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT and AT THE EARTH’S CORE. Only this time he doesn’t have an interesting sidekick such as Cushing’s comic relief or John McEnery’s sophisticated German officer.
It starts off well enough, with a team of explorers and sailors charting mysterious waters. Upon their first submersion into the deep they are attacked by a thought-to-be-extinct sea creature, delivering three genuine jump scares in a row. Once escaping from the monster they discover an ancient gold statue. This causes some conflict between the crew, who quickly perform a mutiny, only to be interrupted by a giant octopus. The mutiny is one of the more interesting aspects of the film; unfortunately it is swept aside until the very end. As for the octopus attack, we are barraged by a series of believable tentacles and gargling sound effects which are quite unsettling. We are thrust into the action of this scene with water droplets splashing across the camera lens.
After arriving in Atlantis the film becomes ironically dry. It hits the same beats as previous adventure movies, but with
none of the excitement. The monsters all look and move convincingly, but they just look so bland in comparison to earlier efforts. The colour palette seems strictly limited. The world of Atlantis itself is also a lovely demonstration of set design, but once again it just doesn’t come alive. One thing that did stand out were the costumes for the guardians. They looked fittingly like a cross between knights and spacemen.
It isn’t long before McClure has his shirt off, quickly wins the heart of a local female, and uses his fists to reach a solution. The film may lack ambition in terms of effects, performances, or production design, but the music goes a long way to adding some much needed tension to the action sequences. It was also fun to see a young John Ratzenberger, though I found his constant ‘friendly’ punching a bit excessive.
Perhaps it’s the seriousness of it all that didn’t involve me. I never once laughed with it or at it and so it committed the biggest crime of B-movie adventure, in that it was just mediocre. As I fought the urge to fall asleep I found myself remembering fondly the last two Connor/McClure films I had watched.
Once again, there are no extras here. It’s a shame as this film came after STAR WARS, so it would have been nice to hear Connor’s opinions on making a special effects adventure film in the wake of such a phenomenon.
WARLORDS OF ATLANTIS is available to buy on DVD from 30th July.
