Review of Warlords of the Deep

One of director Connor and Producer John Darks' better efforts, but that's hardly a recommendation. On the plus side: some good location shooting at Malta Gozo, coupled with a few middling to poor studio sets and matte backdrops. This has a bigger-budget look to it than some of Connor's previous efforts (At The Earth's Core). The music is excellent and deserved better than this, it really gives the film added pace and an other-worldly air. Some of the effects are okay. What's missing: just about everything that's crucial in the making of a ‘good' film is absent here: adequate script, good acting, cohesive and workable plot , and crucial to any fantasy, convincing special effects. (BIG SPOILER) A hunk of rock from Mars has broken off (I think) and with it's inhabitants intact, crashes into the Atlantic Ocean whereby the Atlanteans, as they come to be known, rebuild their civilisation with themselves as the ruling class and ship-wrecked humans as the underclass, both struggling to survive against the erosion of time and the mutant creatures who also originated from Mars. Scene: some time in the future (1896) an English professor & his son are looking for the lost cit(ies) of Atlantis & it's supposed treasures at the Bermuda triangle. They don't tell this to the engineer Collinson (Doug McClure) who has prepared a diving-bell for them, the ship captain, or the three shipmates (proper pirate-types) who think this is just a marine reptile analysing expedition. They do find marine life, but one such specimen, an over-sized octopus, attacks the ship after an Atlantean statue is discovered by the bell. The four mariners and the bell (containing Collinson and the professors' son) are dragged under by the beast to Atlantis. After arriving, perfectly healthy, in a huge cavern, they are promptly captured by Atmir (an atlantean featuring typical atlantean well-groomed locks) and made to cross a mutant-infested swamp to get to their cities. Here our explorers are imprisoned by these evil gilled people, destined for the front line as replacements for the troops fighting the constantly attacking mutants. This is except for Peter Gilmore whose ‘superior British intelligence' is needed to fly the Atlanteans back from whence they came –but not before (gasp) they have conquered the Earth Nazi-style. They place this device on his head and he begins to see future visions of war and scientific advances (commence old stock footage of the Nazis and 20th century technology projected onto the walls) With his help they can build neutron bombs and become supreme rulers of Earth! So, he is also required to ‘INVENT' space travel to fly them back to Mars. Quite ambitious you think. But instead of trying to explain exactly HOW this man's intelligence will help them build rockets, the writer had evidently run out of ideas at this point and decided on the `let's just get out of here' routine that works in so many cheap adventure movies. After a mutant smashes the cell in –their cell is on the outer city walls closest to the monsters– the prisoners attempt to rescue their friend who is coming under the Atlanteans trance and soon to be given gills (how?) so he will never be allowed to leave. They aren't underwater, why the gills? Escape isn't tricky because most of the guards are busy fighting mutants. Atraxon (one of the Atlantean leaders mesmerising Gilmore) seems incapable of physically stopping them. They make their way out of the city and back across the swamps, pausing momentarily to evade obligatory mutants and dodge plastic piranhas thrown by the film crew. Back at the diving bell, they are ambushed by Atmir & pals (female guide: `they must have used the underground canals!' You ARE underground!), and despite being tossed around by Atmir's screaming water spell (you have to watch it) they escape in the bell. After some silly mutinous antics, the ship is sunk by the octopus who wants the statue back, and the remainder escape on a spare boat. The end? Another pressing detail unexplained: they're miles from anywhere with no rations, how will they survive? The acting is pretty lazy considering the talent, but they're only acting out the poor roles provided by the script. For example, to emphasise Doug McClure's stupidity, we have him, 1/3 of the way through, realising that this is not your average fishing foray. Daniel Massey and Cyd Charisse, possibly the most well-known to star, only stand around pretending to look authoritative and indomitable, barking out the occasional order. A waste of their talents, but why did they want to do this? The only really lively part is played by the Irish guy, but this stereotype is monster fodder. After he goes, Hal Galili and John Ratzenburger are left to fight amongst themselves as the bad duo. Which leaves me to discuss the effects. For the late seventies the effects are, to say the least, disappointing. Okay some monster set pieces / stop-motion photography were good when not climbing up miniature city walls and abusing gravity, but on the whole they are cheap-looking. The eel-thing near the start was a rubber outfit dangled by elastic in a fish tank. The octopus was okay, before it became clay and wire. The swamp mutants were either men in rubber suits or bad stop-motion , but they weren't ground-breaking in any department (but effectively scary for kids). Warlords is a diverting boys-own yarn clearly aimed at a younger audience. This is a shame because it could have been so much better after such a promising opening, but it only degenerates into well worn seventies cliche's, a climax of silly special effects and bad acting.