The Legend of Robert the Doll

I've watched a couple of the Robert movies, and yes, they are dire, but oddly entertaining. The acting is mostly dreadful, and the storylines are weak. The main gripe for me though, is the complete lack of authenticity with regard to the sets. This film is supposedly set in Nazi Germany, yet the cottage and the train station they used are so obviously somewhere in England. The station signs are in English, the train is English, the interior of the cottage is typically English, the countryside looks English.

Then there's the toy maker's makeup. In order to make him appear old, they have applied heavy makeup to his face. Unfortunately it looks like he has had an accident with some playdoh.

I actually gave up on this half way through as there was no sign of Robert. All in all, simply awful.

Robert (2015) was a really quite terrible effort at a killer doll horror movie which somehow someway has had a sequel every year since. So here we are on part 4 and unsurprisingly I wasn't excited to see it.

The first 3 movies amassed nine out of a potential 30 points from me here on IMDB, the best by far being the third.

Here we see the Toymaker on the run from german forces, all eager to get hold of his book and the secrets it contains. If you're watching for killer doll action then you're not going to be happy, the dolls probably make up around 2 minutes of the film total. This is not a film about Robert at all.

Once again it has strong vibes of the Puppet Master (1989) franchise, but fails to live up to even their lackluster quality.

With shoddy effects, ridiculous prosthetics and a generic script this is another dud for the series.

The Good:

Well scored

Archive footage

The Bad:

Most pathetic German accents I've ever heard

Weak sfx

Badly false advertised

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Somewhere along the way the creators thought people would be happy with a killer doll movie with no actual killer doll action

This one was a bit of a let down. A straight sequal to the previous one with our toymaker now evading the germans and others that wish him dead on a train. The beginning of the film takes a detor and goes further back in time to the 30s when the book was even before the events of the last film. There is to much time with this part meaning by the time we get to the train there is not much left. Lee bans role of the toymaker was once again enjoyable and I liked his fighting skills. Just wish there was more of the dolls this time around which took away from the film. But it was still good in its own way,

As the title says, where was he? Oh right: he appears an hour into the movie for 2 minutes and has 2 scenes. Terrible. The beginning of this movie is 40 minutes too long. What's happening has nothing to do with Robert/toy maker, and doesn't really tie in. All the films in the franchise are awful, but this is the worst so far. Hopefully with how the movie ends they won't make any more.

Was drawn into seeing 'The Revenge of Robert the Doll', with a cool poster/cover, an intriguing though far from original premise and as someone with a general appreciation for the genre it fits under. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there (though there are decent to good ones as well), made me though apprehensive.

It is sadly however yet another film seen recently, hence some reiteration because the exact same strengths and flaws present in those films are here, that to me was incredibly disappointing considering its potential which it doesn't do anywhere near enough with. 'The Revenge of Robert the Doll' is really very bad, with so many huge flaws, that are exactly the same as the previous films, and doesn't do anywhere near enough with its potential, which was quite a good deal. There is very little good here, and of the Robert films for me this was the worst due to feeling like a separate film to the series even with the titular characters in it.

Only slight redeeming quality is the sometimes spooky music score. Robert is not a redeeming quality this time, if one has seen the previous Robert films what he does in those films is very little different here, it's all un-scary and stale. Plus he is used poorly, for a titular character it was the Toymaker that seemed much more of a leading role.

Going further on to the negatives, the story does feel over-stretched and some of it comes over as vague and under-explained in the last third where the film especially became duller, more predictable, more senseless and less unsettled and never gaining momentum. All the characters are too sketchy and with cardboard thin and colourless personalities and with nowhere near enough to make one want to endear to them. Their annoying and illogical decision making and behaviours frustrates. The chemistry is bland and unfocused.

The sound quality is obvious and utilised cheaply (being too loud in the build ups and people's reactions), the effects are laughable and all of the acting is lacking severely on the whole, that's actually an understatement as the worst of it is horrendous with some of the worst German accents ever committed to celluloid. There is no sense of horror or engagement with the awful predicament they're in, and no connecting with the character, it just reeks of indifference which makes the viewer not care less too.

Dialogue can be stilted and rambling while the pace and film drags on forever, apparent from the very start, never recovering that interest is lost fast. The ending is anti-climactic and more like set-up or foreshadowing of a follow-up, have grown to be wary of these kind of endings because if the plans for the film fall through it would render this film incomplete. Found too many of the supposedly shocking moments not surprising or scary and the atmosphere dreary, due to the excessive obviousness, a lot of dumb and vague moments and explanations and the lack of tension and suspense. Thrills are none, thanks to stodginess and excessive over-familiarity, and found myself never invested in the drama, which tended to be indifferently acted, interminably paced and statically directed.

A lot of 'The Revenge of Robert the Doll' has really dull and going nowhere plot elements and often nonsensical and confusing character motivations, while too many of the things to make you shocked are far from creative or unsettling. It all feels rather tame, especially in the deaths which were as unimaginative and so what as you could possibly get. The footage included was pointless and seemed only there for padding reasons.

Nothing freaky or interesting, no development and too derivative, while everything is unimaginative and are more odd than scary, completely failing to show any sense of dread. There is nothing interesting or illuminating with what the film was trying to do and the drama is overwrought with no momentum and a lot of weirdness. The direction is leaden, got the sense their heart was not in it. 'The Revenge of Robert the Doll' is very amateurish visually, too drearily lit and shows no care in the way it's shot. The editing has more continuity errors than one can count.

In summary, very poor. 2/10 Bethany Cox