Omega Doom

In a dark and dismal world, Rutger has obviously found passage through a land of endless fatty food buffets. This movie was bad enough on its own, but add a nearly comical robot to be cut to pieces, a gun, a bunch of women borrowed from a Robert Palmer video set (and almost as active), and a waddling Rutger Hauer; what do you have? Something Troma would have refused to release on their Sex & Violence office webcam.

After a nuclear war that desolated the planet, just robots and machines got to survive. Old and rusty, the group of cyborg usually gather themselves into gangs and the confronts are inevitable among them.When Omega Doom, a machine programmed to protect the innocent ones, arrives in the small villa and starts to help the place's oppressed inhabitants, he ends up provoking the hate of the villainous, and it doesn't take a lot of time for the hero and the evil robots to start a private, violent combat. Using the experiences and abilities acquired in the war, Omega Doom will do everything to help his friends and, by using his high capacity, he will put an end to the tyranny. A low-budget thriller directed by Albert Pyun, a film maker who is specialist in making science-fictions (Pyun is responsible for others interesting motion pictures, such as "Nemesis" and "Crazy Six"). The dark photography combines with the slow and pessimistic story's climate,but there is no action scene (this is a small bad aspect, but for those who like to see adventure moments' "Omega Doom" isn't a good choice), and Pyun substitutes the shootings and fights for surprising dialogues and discussions about pain, happiness and freedom.Even being tedious, there are qualities, as the exuberant visual that composes a frightening, lonely and violent image of the future, and the contained Rutger Hauer's performance.

Most people would tell you that this flick stinks because it's got poor special effects or the plot seems to be vague. Frankly, you can't judge it next to A-list movies. It's not an A-list movie. What it is though, is a remarkable story with some interesting film tricks to get around its obvious low budget.

In Canada we have a TV station that happens to play independent Sci-fi flicks on weekends and Omega Doom caught my eye because it has Rutger Hauer in it. I figured I would turn it on, have a good chuckle at a plotless flick with a good actor and was surprised to see an intriguing situation of the "Omega Doom", Guardian Angel (Hauer) being feared by others of his kind. That and he has a wicked looking sword...it's like the line in the Simpsons when Homer says "but that little guy hasn't done anything yet, you know he's gonna do something and you know it's going to be good."

While you wait for him to do his thing, the other characters are introduced, the war is explained...and frankly, by then I was salivating. You just *know* who he is. Finally, Angel begins to do his work. The film work is well done, and despite what has been said above, Hauer did his own stunts. And for you Ladyhawke fans, he performs the sword-throwing trick again.

It's also a very good example of a short story brought to life. It could work well on a stage, too. The acting is very consistent and the dialogue, while sparce, doesn't betray the characters. The only thing I didn't like was the bartender singing Joy to the World at the end, but it's okay, because the conversation between Zeke and Angel at the end nods at the idea that life is about waiting, knowing when to act and when not to.

If you are looking for an A-list movie, go to your local theater. If you want to see something quaint and intriguing, watch this. Just don't raise the bar too high...that wouldn't be true to the flick. It's an excellent B-movie, and something good to write a paper on!

I've always tried to watch all the films Albert Pyun has done, ever since I watched "Mean Guns". His way of directing is weird, his usage of special effects generally is bad, but I can't say I do not enjoy his films. Unfortunately, American straight-to-video releases of this kind seldom make it to my country, and cable TV every once in a while blesses me with them.

Like "Adrenalin", "Omega Doom" is another of his apocalyptical future films, and like "Cyborg", there are cyborgs involved (redundant I've been called). The title character is a human-robot hybrid who arrives at a place where he finds two different kinds of robots who would normally be "killing" each other. Apparently, they are looking for guns for when "the humans come to destroy them", so they are in a sort of truce. Of course, and because otherwise it would not be interesting, OD (a.k.a. Guardian Angel) soon makes the two groups (which are composed of 3 members each) angry with him.

The main problem with this film is that, albeit similar to "Cyborg", it lacks action. While Jean Claude Van Damme surely provides that, Rutger Hauer gives more acting, and keeps you all the film waiting for him to use a sword he carries. THere are a couple of badly-made short-lived western-like fights, yet I confess the final fight was better than expected.

As for the performances, Rutger is Rutger. One will always like him. The bar woman is fairly decently played. As for the cyborgs, they were somewhat, if a bit exaggerated, believable. Tina Cotè playing BlackHeart looks so sensual, and her look will remind you of "The Matrix"'s Trinity, but not only this movie is older, Tina looks better!

Concluding, this is a futuristic film. It lacks the depth of "Nirvana", the effects of "The Matrix", or the action of "Equilibrium". But if you were looking for any of these, you would not rent an Albert Pyun's film, would you?

This looks like its going to be an exceptionally dull sci-fi, with Rutger Hauer, looking like some kind of Russian WW2 soldier, playing a renegade android in a post-apocalyptic landscape - a setting which allows for no expensive effects, just a derelict, rubble-strewn building site.

'Omega Doom' is still dull, but when after 20 minutes or so, you realise that the story is a Yojimbo/Fistful of Dollars remake, the film starts to have some minor points of interest.

With no real sci-fi elements - a bloke with shaven bits in his hair, metal gloves and blue contact lenses doesn't totally convince as a fully-fledged android - the film leans towards its Western roots, with two rival gangs holed up on either side of the street and a saloon where Rutger Hauer muses with the friendly female bartender, before playing off the opposing gangs. Hauer fits into the role as the impassive stranger well, accompanied by a spaghetti western guitar theme building up the tension to the inevitable showdowns, which are settled in the classic Western tradition - Omega Doom has a quick draw Shane would be proud of.

Although I quite enjoyed these areas, they couldn't cloud the fact that 'Omega Doom' is boring and derivative, not demonstrating any particular areas of ability on the part of its cast or crew, apart from Hauer who is OK despite being on auto-pilot - but then he is a class actor who, for some reason, prefers to ply his trade in these bargain-basement efforts.

With an annoying whirring noise which accompanies each androids move, and a tiresome 'head' character providing Hauer with his sidekick, there is nothing here for even the most easily satisfied sci-fi viewer. Kurosawa and Leone fans will find enough points of reference to make this interesting, but only in the same way that 'Jaws' fans enjoy 'Orca' or 'Grizzly.