Vampirella |
  • USA • 1996 • 82m •   • Directed by: Jim Wynorski. • Starring: Talisa Soto, Roger Daltrey, Richard Joseph Paul, Brian Bloom, Corinna Harney, Rusty Meyers, Lee de Broux, Tom Deters, Jack Zavorak, Lenny Juliano, Anne Howard, Angus Scrimm, Tyde Kierney. • Music by: Joel Goldsmith.      Thirty centuries ago on the planet Drakulon a cult led by Vlad killed the Council and escaped to earth to become the bloodsuckers known as vampires. Ella, daughter of the slain High Elder, pursues the cult with vengeance in her heart. Shipwrecked for centuries on Mars, she eventually gets to earth as stowaway on a manned expedition. On earth, Adam, a descendant of the Van Helsings, works for PURGE, a paramilitary group dedicated to hunting vampires. Ella is now known as Vampirella, and must form an uneasy alliance with Adam in order to locate and deal with their common enemy, Vlad.
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Produced & directed by the ever useless Jim Wynorski (is there no beginning to this mans talents?) I thought Vampirella was total complete & utter crap from start to finish that is a real chore to sit through. The script by Gary Gerani was based on the comic book character of the same name & I have to admit that I didn't even know there were Vampirella comic books let alone actually read one so I cannot compare how this filmed adaptation compares but I think it's a safe bet to assume that the comics are far superior to this piece of crap. As a film Vampirella fails on every level & as a comic book adaptation it's about as bad as they come, the film seems to take itself quite seriously, it's incredibly stupid & boring, the character's are awful as is the dialogue although the plot where the evil Vlad wants to block out the sun so they can take control of the Earth is actually quite a neat idea but this is underused & only mentioned during the last fifteen minutes by which time it's far too late. There are so many things I dislike about this film I'd be here all day listing them...
Director Wynorski does his usual hack job, no offence Jim but I think your the worst genre director currently working. In case anyone's wondering the footage he steals this time is from Battle From Beyond the Stars (1980) & Galaxy of Terror (1981) & it looks awful. I love the way someone shoots a computer panel once on Earth & then a satellite in space suddenly vanishes in a red flash, this is incompetent film-making at it's most tedious. The outfit Vampirella wears is is rubbish, it looks like it's made from red plastic & she even has a bird symbol on her shorts. Frankly it's embarrassing to see her run around in this pathetically cheap outfit that's far from sexy. I know this is meant to be camp but the blend is all wrong & it just come across as stupid, cheap & just plain awful. There's no blood or gore & only a couple of instances of nudity.
With a supposed budget of about $1,000,000 one has to ask the question where did all the money go? This is so cheap looking it's untrue, the special effects are terrible, the locations are rubbish, the production values are none existent & as a whole Vampirella is a just plain bad. I must admit that I'm a fan of Talisa Soto & think she's hot in films like Mortal Kombat (1995) & as a Bond girl in Licence to Kill (1989) but here even she can't save this mess even though she's the best thing about it. How on Earth they convinced Roger Daltery to appear in this crap is anyone's guess but he's awful in it anyway.
Vampirella is one bad film, it doesn't work as camp or a serious attempt at bringing the comic book character to the big screen (even though it went straight-to-video). I just can't see what anyone would get out of it, I just can't. Awful, leave well alone & watch a decent comic book Vampire film like Blade (1998).
Review by Paul Andrews from the Internet Movie Database.
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