Reaction & Review | Puppet Master X: Axis Rising

Welcome, one and all, to "Full Moon vs. Troma" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, we are celebrating a milestone for this series. This is the 150th episode of Reaction & Review. I am astounded that I have made it this far with, I guess you could call it a reboot of Emer Prevost's Reaction & Review YouTube series, except it's on Deviantart, and it's much less successful, too. I am not afraid to admit that. However, regardless of whether or not it's popular, I'm still having fun writing this series, and I'm thankful to anyone who has stuck around to read these reviews.

And for this kind of milestone, I wanted to find a movie that would do two things for me. One, it would have to fit in with the current marathon that I'm still in the middle of doing. And also, it would have to be something that I would be very interested in watching. And since last week's movie was from Troma, I now have to shift it over to Full Moon tonight. And tonight's movie is definitely one that I've been wanting to watch for quite a few years now. It's a movie that came out in 2012. That movie is "Puppet Master X: Axis Rising".

Now, I'd like to start off by saying that I have been a fan of this franchise since 2018. I say that, mostly because I came into contact with this franchise when I found the first 9 movies on 2 DVD discs that came together. I gave them all a watch, and minus the 6th movie and 8th movie, and even "Retro Puppet Master" to a certain extent, I've greatly enjoyed most of these movies. In fact, I watch most of these movies every year around Halloween, because, to me, that is the perfect time to be a horror movie fan. So yeah, I love this franchise, and it ultimately made me interested in checking out more of Full Moon's movies.

Now you probably noticed, just basing off the title there, that I'm gonna be watching the 10th entry in this franchise. And some of you might be curious as to why I'm reviewing the 10th movie, and not, say, the first "Puppet Master" movie? Well, like I just stated a moment ago, I've seen the first 9 "Puppet Master" movies, so I can't review any of those, because the rules for Reaction & Review must be that I cover movies that I haven't seen before. So those movies are out of the running. The other reason is because, while I have seen most of the early "Puppet Master" movies many, many times already, I never got around to watching any movie beyond the 9th entry. Mostly because, I didn't own a copy of any of them at the time. But thankfully, I finally managed to get a copy of both this, and the 11th "Puppet Master" movie thanks to a sale that Full Moon was running on their website. So I managed to snag both of those movies, and the rest is history. Now I should quickly mention that I'm not gonna be reviewing the 11th "Puppet Master" movie for this marathon, because I already have the other Full Moon movie scheduled for this marathon. But I will definitely end up covering that movie at some point, though.

But getting back to this movie, I should probably tell you what I know about it going in. And the one thing I need to make mention of is that this movie is a direct sequel to the 9th movie, which was called "Puppet Master: Axis of Evil". And that movie was kinda sort of a prequel/sequel to the events of the first movie shortly after Andre Toulon kills himself before the Nazi's could get to him in order to get his secret formula that's able to help Toulon's puppets move freely without strings. I won't spoil the entirety of the 9th movie to you guys, but long story short, this guy named Danny ends up finding Toulon's puppets shortly after he committed suicide. Later, Danny ends up discovering the secrets of Toulon's formula, while also dealing with the Nazi's that were after Toulon's secret formula to begin with. Then he finds out that the Nazis and this Japanese woman are trying to destroy an American weapons plant to try and disrupt the efforts going on during WW2 at that time. Which then later leads to his girlfriend, Beth, getting kidnapped. And at the end, Danny ends up saving his girlfriend, with the help of Toulon's puppets, but one of the puppets ends up getting taken from them, thus leading into this movie. And I'm very curious to see how this is going to play out from here.

So, I should probably quit stalling right now, and find out if this movie is going to end up being any good. And I hope that it is good. However, I know for a fact that these movies aren't invulnerable from being terrible, as is the case with "Curse of the Puppet Master" and "Puppet Master 8: The Legacy" have proven that this franchise can produce duds. So, I'm going into this movie with a bit of caution, but I'm also hoping for it to be pretty good, as well. So with that lengthy introduction out of the way, it's finally time to dive into this movie. So, for the 150th time, it is time to kick back, relax, and check out "Puppet Master X: Axis Rising".

2 minutes later

OK, I need to comment on this. So, this is suppose to be the same Japanese woman that was one of the antagonists from the previous movie. And for some reason, the white makeup that was on her face from the previous movie has completely disappeared here. I understand that this movie was made 2 years after Axis of Evil, but you would think that someone would've at least obtained some consistency and kept the white makeup on this woman's face, since she had that makeup on her face the entire previous movie. Granted, it's a somewhat trivial thing to be complaining about, but still, some consistency would've been nice.

15 minutes later

Guys, I'd like to say right now that this lady's German accent REALLY sucks. I think it's probably because that it keeps disappearing when it's not suppose to. Mind you, the other people that are suppose to be German soldiers DO sound legitimately German. But this female General's accent isn't really that good. Just thought I'd let you guys know.

9 minutes later

Well...I think I can safely that this resurrection project turned out to be a complete failure. I mean, it was a sound concept, but perhaps maybe it would've worked better had this General had gotten a better test subject for this project. But hey, maybe that's just me.

19 minutes later

OK, hold on a second here. So, one of the little holes that are needed to inject the secret formula into these puppets was found in Tunneler's chest area. Except, in the previous movie, the little hole was found in the back of Tunneler's neck when Danny first gave it the serum. You know, guys, I understand that the "Puppet Master" franchise isn't the best with it's continuity, but I would still like for it to TRY to be more consistent with it's own continuity. Even if it's just for minor stuff such as this. You know what I mean?

11 minutes later

So, Bombshell can shoot bullets from her mechanized tits. Well...I can't say that it isn't creative. I could question what this scientist's thought process was going through when he was creating this puppet, but then again, I think I already know what that thought process is, given what we saw from that female Nazi General from earlier. So, I guess that would render my own question kinda pointless.

20 minutes later

You know, guys, I will say that my favorite new puppet in this movie that I've seen up to this point is Blitzkrieg. Blitzkrieg is, basically, just a toy tank. But I still think it looks really cool, considering that the other new puppets, aside from Bombshell, haven't really done very much in this movie so far.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Puppet Master X: Axis Rising". Let me go ahead and shut the film off...all right. So...what to even begin with here? I guess I should start off by saying that, even though I have complained about a couple of things here in particular that kinda bugged me a bit, I still really enjoyed this movie. Now admittedly, it's nowhere near as good as the earlier "Puppet Master" movies, but it's certainly nowhere near the bad levels of something such as "Curse of the Puppet Master". That, to me, is still the lowest point of all the "Puppet Master" movies, though "Puppet Master 8: The Legacy" does come in at a close second.

Now with that being said, let's get into the writing itself, shall we? And I should start off by saying that this movie, as I mentioned before, is seen as kinda sort of a sequel/prequel to the very first "Puppet Master" movie. In which, it starts off shortly after Toulon kills himself before the Nazi's could get to him to surrender his secret formula to them. And then after the Nazi's leave after failing to find the puppets, Danny ends up going to Toulon's room, and manages to find the puppets that Toulon had hidden inside one of the walls of his room, thus kicking off the events of the 9th movie. Now how this all leads into "Puppet Master 2", continuity wise, is a completely different story altogether. And it's admittedly one that I have no idea at this point in time. It may have been answered in the next entry after this movie, which is called "Puppet Master: Axis Termination". But I have no idea until I eventually get around to watching that movie at some point. Which is gonna lead into a little bit of a problem, which I'll talk about a little bit later when discussing this movie's writing. But one thing that I think you should guys know ahead of time is that if you have any interest in watching the "Puppet Master" movies, I would advise you in not trying to figure out what entry in this franchise goes in what order. Because like I mentioned earlier, the "Puppet Master" series timeline is kinda all over the place. And if you were to try and figure out the complexity of Puppet Master's continuity, then, chances are that, you would be totally lost on all of this. Granted, it's not as confusing as something such as the Zelda timeline that use to be a hot debate back in the day, but it could be seen as pretty damn confusing to new viewers. Mind you now, as someone who has seen the first 9 movies quite a few times already, I have a pretty good idea as to where most of those movies take place in what order, but I could totally imagine new viewers going into these movies for the first time, and they could be totally lost on a lot of this.

Now since I just talked about the Puppet Master's continuity, let's kinda segue way into this by talking about a couple of inconsistencies that this movie runs into. The first one, and this was one that I brought up WAY early on in the movie, has to involve the Japanese woman, who was one of the main antagonists from Axis of Evil. For those of you who have never seen that movie, she was dressed up as a geisha the entire movie, and one of the things that made her stand out was that she had white makeup on her face, which is most geisha's wear. However, in between the ending of Axis of Evil and the beginning of Axis Rising, someone got their wires crossed, because the white makeup that she had on in the previous movie doesn't exist when she first appears on screen in this movie. Not only that, but she looks to be played by a completely different actress, too. I'll get into that later when discussing the acting, though. Now admittedly, this one is a bit of a minor complaint, mostly because, a bit of a spoiler here, the Japanese woman gets killed within the first few minutes of the movie. So it's not really something I'm gonna harp on too much there. However, one thing that does kinda bug me is the placement of how the puppets are suppose to come alive. As I mentioned before, the secret formula that Toulon created helps his puppets move without strings. And in order to make his puppets come alive, he has to inject the puppets with his secret formula in order for them to move around. Now, in Axis of Evil, Danny was able to inject the puppets through the back of the neck in order for them to come alive. But for some reason, in this movie, it is shown from this German scientist that was checking out Tunneler's mechanisms that Tunneler's hole is from his chest area and NOT the back of his neck. And that kinda bugs me a bit, because it seems like when this movie was being made, apparently, nobody bothered to look back on Axis of Evil and realize that the holes came from the puppets neck and not the chest area. I would've thought that Charles Band would've noticed this, since he produced most of these movies, with the exception of the 8th movie. But, I guess that didn't happen, and these inconsistencies were just left unchecked by him and the person who wrote this movie.

So, with the problem of the inconsistencies shown in this movie, what about the rest of the writing? Well, despite my problems I had with those inconsistencies, the movie still has some pretty good writing here. Now again, I wouldn't say that it's as strong as what was shown in Axis of Evil, but what we do have for writing here is still good enough to where it can carry it's own weight. And it carries off right after the events of Axis of Evil, where Tunneler gets taken by the Japanese woman, which then gets taken from some Nazi soldiers, who in turn kill the Japanese woman. Danny and Beth are reunited together with the puppets, as they try to figure out how to get Tunneler back from the Nazis. Which then leads them to be taken by some officials from the U.S. Army, who thanks them for stopping the destruction of the weapons manufacturing plant. They are then assigned to a bodyguard, AKA Sergeant Stone, to look after them while also awaiting someone named General Porter, where they will get a medal for their success. Which later leads to Danny to convince Stone to help them get back Tunneler from the Nazis, and thus that plot kinda kicks off from there. On the Nazi side of things, we have this German scientist being blackmailed by a Nazi General named Moebius, to help build his resurrection project, which is to, basically, create undead soldiers that wouldn't be killed in battle for his army. So, in other words, zombies, if you will. And there's also this female Nazi General that, I think, is suppose to have a thing for our German scientist, although that part is not entirely clear. I wasn't totally sure if the scientist was suppose to be attracted to our female Nazi General, and the way that whole subplot ends is kinda rushed and doesn't really get developed all that much.

Speaking of which, let's get into the characters, shall we? Now, seeing as how this movie is a direct sequel to Axis of Evil, we do have our two main characters back for this movie, which would be Danny and Beth. And their characters were pretty well established in that movie. So, if you go into this movie without watching Axis of Evil first, then you would be kinda lost as to who these characters are and why we should care about them. So just a bit of a heads up, you might want to watch that movie first before you dive into Axis Rising. In fact, I'll mention more about both of those movies later on when I get to recommendations. But anyway, as for our villains, well, they're basically just Nazis, with the exception of the German scientist. Speaking of which, it's stated in the movie that the German scientist has a daughter, but we never actually see her in this film. Maybe she's in the 11th movie, but I have no idea at this time. And as for our puppets, well, we do have our main cast of puppets such as Blade, Pinhead, Leech Lady, Jester, and Six Shooter, who kinda sorta makes his first debut within the Axis trilogy. I say kinda sorta, because his first appearance was, technically, in the 3rd movie, but I gotta keep the timeline of these movies within the frame of mind here when discussing this series. We also have 4 new puppets in this movie that were created by the German scientist. The first one is Bombshell, who I mentioned earlier. Blitzkrieg, who's more of a toy robot rather than a puppet, but that's just me being nitpicky. Weremacht, who's basically just a werewolf in a Nazi uniform, and probably the least memorable puppet of the group. And then there is Kamikaze. Now, I do have to warn some viewers ahead of time that Kamikaze, as the name implies, is a suicidal bomber. And the reason why I bring this up is because the design of the puppet could be seen as ridiculously offensive to some people. That being said, you also have to understand that this movie's story takes place during a time where all of that was acceptable. So, just to warn those that are prone to being offended rather easily ahead of time, you might take offense to the design of this particular puppet. Me personally, I think it looks really fucking hilarious. But then again, it also takes a lot to genuinely offend me. So, make that of what you will.

Now beyond all of that, the writing here, like I said, is still pretty good for what it is. And for me, personally, I really think this holds up pretty well, at least as far as sequels to the "Puppet Master" series go anyway. Now, with that being said, let's get into the acting. One thing I need to make mention of real quick before I talk about the acting itself is that the actors who played Danny and Beth from Axis of Evil are replaced by completely new actors in this movie. Now I have no idea as to WHY the original actors were replaced in this movie, but I will say that the acting from them in this movie is not too bad. I mean, granted, it's not great, but it's certainly not as bad it could've been. That being said, I want do to talk about the accents certain actors have in this movie. When it comes to the Nazis, the male actors sound convincing enough, but as for the female Nazi...not so much. I brought it up earlier, but her German accent really sucks. And it's mostly because her accent has somewhat of a habit of disappearing when it wants to. And it comes off as rather flaky, overall. And it's not just her either. You remember the Japanese woman I kept bringing up earlier? Well, her accent is also pretty damn bad. To a point where her acting is just stilted and really wooden, too. Granted, the original actress who played her in Axis of Evil wasn't great either, but at least she was sorta tolerable for the most part. This actress, though, was kinda shit. Now admittedly, the accents don't bring the entire movie down, but some of it doesn't sound very convincing either. So really, it just comes to whether or not you can tolerate the questionable accents on a couple of these actresses. But like I said, the rest of the acting here is decent, and it's certainly nowhere near the bad level of "Retro Puppet Master" when it comes to terrible acting. So, at least, we have that.

So now, let's get into the special effects. And unfortunately, this movie's special effects are, once more, a step down from the previous movies quality. And when I say previous movies, I'm talking about the first 5 "Puppet Master" movies. Because for those of you who have never seen the first 5 movies of this franchise, one of the things that made those movies stand out were the AWESOME-looking stop motion effects that went into the puppets. They felt like they were real, and you could totally buy that they didn't move like normal puppets did. And the last time that those effects were being used was all the way back in 1994, back during "Puppet Master 5: The Final Chapter". So, come 18 years later, the special effects have definitely taken a nosedive from quality. There is no stop motion for the puppets in this movie, and they all just move like normal puppets, if just barely. The digital effects and CG, what little is used here anyway, are cheap and kinda shit. The only one of them that stands out, at least when it comes to the puppets, is Blitzkrieg. And that's mainly because, like I mentioned earlier, it doesn't function like a normal puppet. It was either remote controlled, or it was an animatronic. And while that looked OK, it's definitely not as impressive as was seen in the first 5 "Puppet Master" movies. And I totally understand that I shouldn't be comparing special effects from almost 20 years ago to effects that were made in 2012, but it's something that I think is definitely the most disappointing thing about this movie. Now, who knows? Maybe the effects will get better in "Puppet Master: Axis Termination", but I'm not gonna hold my breath there. Anyway, the effects here are definitely disappointing. But I will say that it's not as shit as it was in "Curse of the Puppet Master", where most of that movie reused stock footage from the first movie out of desperation. But again, I'm probably just comparing apples to oranges, so I'll try to move on from there.

Camerawork here is really good. The lighting here is also lit fine. The sound-mix here is also pretty good, too. There's not I can say about the music, aside from one thing. There's a scene in this movie where the puppets open a music box at Danny's home, and the song that's playing is the "Puppet Master" theme song. Which I thought was pretty cool. And if Full Moon ever wanted to, they could release these kinds of music boxes on their website for sale, and I would totally buy it for a reasonable price. I don't know if they ever did that, but if not, then that's really a missed opportunity, because that music box would definitely sell well in my opinion. However, I'm getting a bit off track here. The music here is fine, with the minor bonus of that music box playing the theme song.

So ultimately, guys, when everything is said and done, am I able to recommend "Puppet Master X: Axis Rising"? If you watched "Puppet Master: Axis of Evil" first, and you really enjoyed that, then go for it. I would say, at least for me anyway, that these movies are pretty good. In fact, I should mention that the first two Axis movies are both free on Full Moon's official YouTube channel. So if you got any time on your hands, and you want to check these movies out for yourselves, go right ahead and check them out. I'll even put a link to both of these movies at the top of this description for you guys to check out. And if you liked both movies enough, then go ahead and buy physical copies of them, be it on DVD or Blu-ray. I think you would definitely find something to like here. However...I would say, personally speaking, that you should go watch the first 5 "Puppet Master" movies first, because I think those are mostly better, at least when it comes to the special effects anyway. And if you really have to, then I guess, MAYBE, you could go and watch the 6th and 7th movies, though I personally think they both suck. I'm not recommending the 8th movie, because it's just a clip show. But anyway, guys, check these movies for yourselves if you are a horror movie fan. And who knows? Maybe you'll really end up liking the 6th and 7th movies, but I can't guarantee that. And as for myself, I think that, despite some obvious flaws, this was a really good way to celebrate 150 episodes of a series that I'm, somehow, still doing. And I can't wait till I get to episode 200, since I already know what I want to watch for episode 200. But in the meantime, I think I'm gonna go and marathon a couple of the "Puppet Master" movies right now, since I just finished talking about them.

Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of the 150th episode of Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.