La momie aztèque contre le robot

Got this DVD because I remembered watching these flicks as a kid on late night spookfests in the 60s. Usually I fell asleep, now I know why. Pretty slow moving and lacking in action. Generally a rehash of the 1st two Aztec Mummy films with a little addition of the Robot creation. Looks like a really poor interpretation of a Universal monster compilation. The sequences pulled from the original AZTEC MUMMY look pretty good though. This one is kind of what a 12 yr old kid with a super 8 camera might try to do, with a little help from mom and dad who know nothing about making a movie. And they probably would think it was good, too. One redeeming quality, lots of eerie night shots for mood.

It's hard not to laugh at this movie. It's hard not to laugh knowing that somewhere, someone sat down and thought that having a robot fight a mummy would make for a good picture. And it might have been if the two title characters combined for more than 5 min of screen time. Unfortunately, most of the film consists of flashback scenes and some scientist's encounters with "The Bat". The robot, built out of sturdy cardboard and headlights, isn't even introduced till the movie is practically over and their monumental confrontation (the premise the movie is supposedly centered around) lasts about 30 sec.

I have a lot of questions for this movie. Why is the bad guy referred to as "The Bat"? Why does the mummy sound like a gorilla? Why did the robot need to have a human head? Why was there an endless Aztec dance scene? Why?

Yet another K. Gordon Murray import from Mexico aimed mainly at kids, but actually fun for anyone who fancies humanoid robots controlled by mad scientists, or ambulatory mummies. It entertains on about the same level as those old movie serials. Great black and white photography, nice ominous atmosphere. All the actors offer sincere performances, but deserving of special honourable mention is Luis Aceves Castaneda as the gleefully wicked Dr. Krupp; rarely has an actor enjoyed a mad scientist role so much! The English dubbing is another matter, but if you enjoy old-fashioned mummy/musty crypt horror films, you could do worse.

Despite having a very pretty leading lady (Rosita Arenas, one of my boy-crushes), the acting and the direction are examples of what NOT to do while making a movie.

Placed in southern Mexico, Popoca, the Aztec Mummy (real Aztecs, by the way, DID not made mummies) has been waken up by the lead characters and starts making trouble in Mexico City suburbia, during the first movie (The Aztec Mummy). In this second part, the leading man and woman want to find th mummy and put it in its final resting place (a fireplace would have been my first choice...)

Into this appears The Bat, a criminal master-mindless stereotype of a criminal genius who creates a "human robot" (some idiot inside a robot SUIT) to control Popoca and (get this) take over the world. The final match between the robot and the mummy is hilarious, some of the worst choreography ever witnessed. The funniest part is that this movie was made and released by a serious Mexican movie studio!

The acting is just as awful hearing the movie in Spanish as it is in English (they dubbed the over-acting!). You should watch this movie through MST:3000. The comments are even funnier.

"RVAM"'s reputation preceded it. I first heard of it in one of those Medved style movie books, "The 50 Worst Movies Ever" or "The Golden Turkey Awards", or something like that. Every review of the film basically said that this movie was so bad that it would make you bleed from the eyes to watch it. So when the Exposed Film Society finally got around to showing it, I was anticipating the kind of cathartic experience that only a true cinematic stinker can provide.

However, "Robot" wasn't really all that bad.

Oh, this is definitely a "Z" film through and through. Some of the voice dubbing (as is usually the case for K. Gordon Murray imports) is awfully cheesy, and the movie itself seems to be structurally something of a Frankenstein, since a huge chunk of it seems to be footage from a previous "Aztec Mummy" movie, narrated with a voice-over by the leading man. A dead giveaway: anytime the question "Then what happened?" is asked more than twice in the dialog, you are looking at reassembled footage put together with little regard for plot coherence or momentum. In RVAM, "Then what happened?" or "What happened then?" is uttered at least four times in the 1st hour.

Even without the structural problems, the plot and dialog don't translate well to an older American audience. For instance, as the hero explains (and explains and explains) the back-story. he includes a remark about Doctor Krupp, "a doctor who suddenly turned into an evil master criminal" and began his quest for the treasure that the Aztec mummy guards. No background, no explanation, he just "suddenly turned evil". Obviously, this was aimed at a pretty undiscriminating audience.

The clincher, though, is the "Robot", the supposed "showcase" of this movie. This Robot is the worst robot special effect since "Undersea Kingdom" or even "Santa Claus Vs. The Martians". Compared to this hunk of junk, the Tin Man from the "Wizard Of Oz" looked like the Terminator chassis that chased Linda Connor through the foundry in T2. The Aztec Mummy himself is well designed and executed; he's recognizably undead, familiar enough to look like a mummy, and yet distinct from the "Boris Karloff" bandage collection familiar to most American audiences. But whoever designed the Robot in this followup had no feel for the concept...or no budget. They could at least have given him some knees, for heaven's sake.

In addition, the titular battle is terribly executed and lasts less than 60 seconds. (I've seen shoving matches on junior high playgrounds that are more convincing.) Then the movie basically just stops. That seems a bit of a rip off considering the amount of time the movie spends building up to the battle itself.

In spite of all these problems, the movie isn't horrible or incompetent the way a Coleman Francis film or a Larry Buchanan film was. Compared to "Monster A-Go-Go" or "Attack of The Eye Creatures", "RVTAM" is like a Coppola film. It's just kind of dull and boring and silly. The actors are competent (in a mannered B movie way) and reasonably photogenic; Dr. Krupp, in particular seems to be having a wonderful time as he leers and plots and capers about in his cape and "Phantom Of the Opera" suit. I often found myself rooting for him, in spite of his being the villain.

Anyway, I've seen much, much worse. File this with "Samson Vs The Vampire Women", under "interesting Mexican juvenile oddities".