Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Film #17: Conquest (1983)


Plot - Something about a naked woman with a C-3PO mask and an army of wookies at her side wanting to kill some kid. It's definitely threadbare, but it hits most of the high notes, throwing in countless gratuitous head crushes, decapitations, and body explosions for good measure. The only time it's bad is near the end, where the film is padded with redundant fight sequences and long scenes where people are running around.

Form -  The action sequences are well shot and edited despite the sloppiness of the actors. If these scenes were bad, the film would have absolutely fallen apart since a third of its running time is dedicated to fights. Many scenes toy with lighting and color in interesting ways, more so than most of Fulci's other films.

F/X - The real star of the show. People being torn in half, decapitations, general cudgels, bloody laser explosions, etc.

Acting - The best actors are all wearing crazy Chewbacca and robot outfits.

Mise en scene - Aside from giant open fields and desert landscapes, most of the actor's outfits and items are interesting enough. A lot of effort seems to get put into these swords and sandals films.

Quotables - There are these weird ice people that have the best voices ever.

Cool stuff - Naked people, blood, guts, and a general misanthropic approach to everything. Tons of cool stuff, but too much plodding around near the end. Scenes where people look around a lot, run around a lot, and stand around a lot for the sake of padding a film that should be around 80 minutes long.

6/7

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