Moontrap

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This review's actually gonna be a really quick one because I can't think of a whole lot to say about it. I suppose the beginning is as good a time as any to mention that it's not really a Bruce Campbell movie. He's in it, but very much second banana to Walter Koenig (best known as Chekov from the original 'Star Trek' series). Further to that, Campbell plays it more or less straight here (at least, until one scene), and he's not given much to do. So if you want full Bruce, you won't find it here, sadly.

Taking place twenty years after the Apollo 11 Mission to the Moon (present day, 1989) astronauts Colonel Jason Grant (Walter Koenig) and Ray Tanner (Bruce Campbell) encounter an abandoned spaceship while on board their shuttle, Camelot, on a routine mission. Grant heads out to investigate, and discovers an odd looking pod along with a random human corpse. As most movies like this go, both are brought back to earth for scientific study, while the audience can already see the 'Alien' ripoff about to happen.

Upon study, it's discovered that both the pod and the corpse originated on the moon, 14,000 years ago. All scientists involved leave the lab, and of course, shit happens. The pod hatches, unleashing an alien that uses the corpse along with various mechanical parts to make an honestly pretty badass cybernetic body. It goes on a bit of a rampage, but is quickly destroyed. The potential for more destructive alien creatures from the moon leads the two astronauts on a new mission; to destroy them at all costs.

There's just not much to say about this one. It could be a fun, goofy romp if you have the patience for it, but this kind of thing was already done better with 'Alien'. The biggest problem here is that it seems to leave all sorts of dangling questions. Like what's up with the ancient humanoid Moon society? Why do the aliens want to invade in the first place? Where do they come from? Just how big is Bruce Campbell's chin? And so on. They even stumble across a woman in suspended animation, a native of this Moon society, named Mera (Leigh Lombardi). But not much gets answered other than the name of the invading alien creatures. Or maybe there was, but I found myself drifting off because listening to her talk is a bit time-consuming.

Quite honestly, I was not a fan. There was nothing new or different about any of this, and it felt much longer than it was. It only runs an hour and a half, but it felt more like two, and so much of it is seemingly filler. But this was director Robert Dyke's first attempt. He would later make a sequel called 'Moontrap: Target Earth', but it seemed to get even less attention than this. Dyke's better talent seems to lie in visual effects, working on films like 'Evil Dead II' and 'Angels in the Outfield' (he has range). Anyway, it's not terrible, but there's nothing about it that sticks out as good, either. It's pretty forgettable, overall, and the only thing even remotely interesting about it is the aliens, but that's only due to their cyborg-making skills (I will give it that scene - that was pretty awesome... even if it was too long).

2/5

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