Moontrap

Wacky, gory, and strangely humorous, "Moontrap" is one of those low budget films that forces its way into your heart. You just can't help but watch all of "Moontrap" once you accidentally run into it when channel surfing. Cheesy, and almost parodoxial of contemporary space action movies, "Moontrap" plays out into a required viewing B-movie for any one remotely interested in sci-fi. The plot is simple and standard issue: Walter Koenig is Col. Jason Grant (a.k.a., Pavel Chekov), a single-parent, astronaut burn-out who brings home an alien artifact. When NASA's computers find out that hostile alien life originated in the Moon's Prometheus Crater, Col. Grant is sent with a special team to eliminate an army of football-shaped alien eggs in stasis. One can pretty much guess what happens, and this basically makes "Moontrap" a space slasher film. All in all an incredibly stupid film, but well worth viewing. Very similar to "Virus" in some respects.

Let me get to it,this movie was good and original, a little corny in places, but damn good non the less.

Walter Koenig and Bruce Campbell are great together and have good chemistry. I like how this is kinda like a buddy movie and a monster movie blended into one. And the space woman they find is very hot, I don't know her but she did a good job as well, especially being mute for most of it.

I think this was well made for it's time, I think what works best about this is, it's high concept story and chemistry with it's characters, having never seen the movie before I think it has aged well, I also like that the movie released the year I was born.

Overall, a well made film that is entertaining, and I hope to see more stories to this soon. Now I have seen "Moontrap: Target Earth" staring Sarah Butler, which described by the filmmakers is a stand alone sequel. I personally liked it, I seen that one first before this one and I can honestly say this movie is much better, but I still liked the sequel, it's a guilty pleasure of mine and so is this one.

I give this one a 5/10. A cool, fun B-movie. Highly recommended.

I had me some fun revisiting MOONTRAP the other day. Had not seen it since my teen-days. A small but ambitious sci-fi/horror film about a race of robotic aliens hidden on the dark side of the moon, occupying themselves since ages with building a giant mother-ship - that thing was huge! - to invade earth and using human bodies for spare-parts (VIRUS with Jamie Lee Curtis, anyone?). A weird film altogether with a lot of great and some not-so-great special effects, including nifty looking miniatures. Starring none less than Walter Koenig (from the original STAR TREK series) and Bruce Campbell, who's acting his way very inappropriately through this film, like if he was convinced he was doing another EVIL DEAD film. Can't really call this a great film, with its pacing problems and illogical goings-on, but it was a blast seeing it again.

This isn't a classic by any means. But it is fun to watch! It has a very good SciFi premise, the acting is good, and the cinematography is good. I really thought the special effects were outstanding for a small budget flick. The dialog suffers a little/lot here and there but is passable. While the movie itself doesn't make the "A List" there are two or three scenes that are kind of classic and make the whole thing worthwhile. If you like the B flicks then this one is a must! I would love to see a big budget remake. Grab some popcorn and load it up, you'll be glad you did!

Space shuttle pilots Grant and Tanner discover a giant alien spacecraft between earth and moon. During an investigation, Grant finds a football-like thing and a corpse of a 14'000-year old astronaut! Back on Earth, in a NASA laboratory, the mentioned football-thing comes to life and combines itself with the corpse! The result can only be described as sort of a zombie-robot killing machine. It soon wreaks havoc on everything in his path, but Grant manages to destroy it. On moon, Grant and Tanner then discover the remainings of an ancient civilisation! Inside a giant palace, they find the female survivor of a war that took place there 14'000 years ago, and they have to fight against other zombie-robot creatures. They are not aware that they brought the final piece of technique (their landing capsule) to the moon that allows an army of robot-aliens (known as "Kaaliun") to finish their spacecraft in order to conquer the earth! They've been waiting for 14'000 years, and now Grant must find a way to stop them...

I really don't understand why everybody calls this a B-movie. Maybe it was not in theatres in the US, but it was in Europe. The special effects are great. Of course, they used models in several scenes, but it was good model work. The film has exactly the kind of wonderful and frightening (thanks to Joseph LoDuca's score) atmosphere that makes science-fiction movies great. And we have Walter Koenig and the incredible Bruce Campbell, what more could we ask for? Yes, the movie isn't perfect, but what movie is? Yes, it can't be taken seriously, like most other SF movies either, and yes, a higher budget would have added to the film's quality, but the budget can't have been that low either. This film is also NOT an "Alien" rip-off and NOT a "TERMINATOR" rip-off, nor a rip-off of any other movie. It's idea has absolutely nothing in common with the mentioned SF classics and is very original. Contrary, it has been ripped-off by John Bruno's "Virus" in 1999. If you really call yourself a fan of SF movies, you simply can't dislike "Moontrap".