Monarch of the Moon

Comedies, even spoofs, are more difficult to make than most people realize. and when it comes to spoofing an old film style, most professional directors fail. Mel Brooks succeeded with "Young Frankenstein" but failed with "High Anxiety" and "Silent Movie". Others have failed spoofing the old 40's serials, the only exception being a movie that is not truly a spoof of the serials, but yet is funny and exciting: "Raiders of the Lost Ark".

"Monarch of the Moon" is another attempt to spoof the Flash Gordon, Batman and Zorro type serials from days gone by. Its obvious that these people love the genre and had a lot of fun making this, but, for the most part,it doesn't work. The main deficits in the film are slow pacing and a mix of acting styles and skills. Some of the actors are playing their roles fairly straight (Yellow Jacket, the Bear Scout kid and Dragonfly for example), while others are spoofing stereo-types (his drunken sidekick) while yet some others are playing it for silly slapstick (the secretary). Individually, many of these work, but together in a film, they clash against each other. Additionally, the script can't decide how far to go in the spoof and sometimes steps too close to absurdity and is occasionally derisive of the genre. There are a couple of funny lines and a few good performances, but for a seemingly long, slow-paced film . . .its not enough.

One does have to compliment all involved for their effort and for the detail they gave to the project. Good costuming, good CG, good makeup and good sets. The music score is okay as written, but is apparently performed on less-than-great synthesizers and so has a cold, distant, unexciting feel.

Worth seeing for those of us who are budding, low budget filmmakers, but I'm not 100% sure that it was worth the 20 bucks for the DVD.