MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, sociological*
Just as the previous Asylum entry in this series was a deep-discount knockoff of GODZILLA VS. KONG, and so opposed its imitation Kong against its mechanical imitation, NEW WORLD ORDER loosely derives from GODZILLA VS. KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE, wherein the two title monsters team against a threat to Earth.
ORDER is a tiny bit better than its predecessor, if only because returning writer-director Marc Gottleib injected a little more mystery into the proceedings. Why is Abraham the Ape, now confined to a Pacific island, now acting as if he anticipates some new enemy by costuming himself in crude "armor?" Why does a cruise ship, whose passengers include the parents of ace reporter Naomi (Ashley Dakin), disappear at sea? And even though the government has built a "Mark II" version of the Mecha-Kong that got enlisted by terrorists in the previous film, a version that should be impossible to usurp again, why does an early scene appear to show Mecha-Kong II overtaking the cruise ship?
Well, Gottleib does have some answers to some questions, though I don't think he ever explains that early oceanic scene with Mecha-Kong II. It seems that the aliens who originally inserted the bio-gunk into Abraham's capsule in APE VS MONSTER have a much more involved scheme, involving the resurrection of an ancient giant tentacle-headed critter named Khlu-hoo (HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu under an alias). Somehow the aliens, who never make an appearance on Earth itself, orchestrate this with the help of human servitors, including a politico played by the resident "name-actor," Sean Young. Ape and Mecha-Ape botn fight the Tentacle-Menace, and though the two "heroes" are not literally on screen together, Gottleib does find a way to make the early scene of Abraham "armoring" himself pay off.
That said, ORDER is still just another Asylum in which no-name actors stand around spouting Bad Expositions, with maybe ten percent of the movie devoted to monster-action. That said, I liked the design of Khloo-hoo (or whatever) better than either of the pongid protagonists, particularly in a scheme where Tentacle-Terror just picks up Abe and chucks him like a bad penny. But I didn't like anything about ORDER enough to give it a higher rating than poor.
No comments:
Post a Comment