Supersonic Man

This is two movies in one. The first is a 1-star bad movie and a 10-star RiffTrax movie with the voice-overs. How do you rate a movie like this?

The actors involved try hard, but in the end the plot and script drag it down. Cameron Mitchell as always delivers a fine performance in low-budget movies given what he has to work with.

Is it worth watching? To me on it's own, no. But with the RiffTrax crew working their magic was well worth my time and quite entertaining.

It says Spain everywhere on the page. Film locations, where most of the cast and director are from. Takes 10 seconds to see it. Nothing surprises me anymore...Anyway this is a SPANISH made knockoff of Superman by one of the more ambitious B movie directors I can think of, Juan Piquer Simón. This director also did the ET knockoff better known to MST3K fans as Pod People. A little boy and his love for Trumpy. Yeah...

Aside from Pumaman, I dont remember Italian studio production companies by this time willing to try a movie with much special effects. They were mostly obsessed with trying to make Mad Max, Road Warrior, Escape From New York, Warriors knockoffs (i mean homages). They are less reliant on effects and expensive locations, same reason they were so good at making Westerns. I think Italian filmmakers learned not to try special effects on this scale after War of the Robots.

This movie is overly ambitious given its financial limitations. All the dialogue is dubbed in which was standard practice in European moviee back then. The star is Cameron Mitchell and the male lead actor's mustache. His character loses the mustache when he morphs into this large pasty skinned expressionless guy in tights.

There are moments of comic relief that mostly gave me a puzzled expression than a laugh. I am not entirely sure what Dr Gulik's world domination plan is but Cameron Mitchell does get to quote Shakespeare and have some overly dramatic scenes as the villain. Some long scenes like his dinner with the scientist he elaborately kidnaps in the first act then doesn't do much with him when he is around are just excuses for dramatic speeches. With so much technology at his disposal, you'd think he'd give the kidnapped scientist sodium pentothal or at least a mind altering brain ray to force his collaboration instead of endlessly trying to kidnap his daughter. I suspect Cameron Mitchell did this movie for an all expense paid vacation in Spain. It is better than other Cameron Mitchell movies he was doing by this time like Frankenstein Island but I did like Cataclysm which is about a demon returning to earth so he can act like a jerk.

Dr. Gulik (Cameron Mitchell) is an evil mastermind bent on . . . well, I'm really not sure what he was bent on. I watched the entire movie and still have no idea what Dr. Gulick's plan was. In between all the gibberish Dr. Gulick spouts, I don't believe he ever laid out what his ultimate goal was (if he did, I missed it). I don't believe I've ever seen a movie with a more confusing plot. Or, maybe the plot wasn't confusing, but, instead, the movie didn't have a plot. That's my guess.

Beyond the plot, everything else is a disaster. The special effects are the worst, the music is beyond annoying, and the acting is atrocious. Usually I can watch a movie and enjoy it regardless of the dubbing. That's not the case here. The voice actors are terrible. And why was there a need to dub Cameron Mitchell with a ridiculous, over-the-top English accent? And then there's the robot. This movie was made in 1979, not 1939. Just plain stupid. The only reason I haven't given the movie a "1" is for all the lackeys in the matching, multi-color jumpsuits. Watching these guys run around as the island blows-up is worth a point.

...if you're a lover of bad cinema. From the horrible credit sequence which desperately tries to copy SUPERMAN, to the super cheesy flying sequences, to scenes of hero lifting up things like an incredibly fake looking, wooden (yes, wooden) bulldozer, director J.P. Simon delivers the goods yet again! The man who brought you PIECES and SLUGS doesn't disappoint. If you have no life, viewing this film is a must!!!

It just seems logical that the Italians would have made something along the lines of Superman as they often do versions of successful films such as Jaws, Star Wars and Alien. I had just never really seen any like I had the others; however, I have seen one now, Supersonic Man! Yes, he looks super built, but his costume definitely needs more work and his alter ego is played by a completely different person. Though the plus side on that is that it is harder to discover his identity, but the villain seems to think it is one and the same guy. And speaking of villains, never before has the screen seen a villain such as the one here, who seems to have no real goal beyond boring an old man to death with his discussions.

The story, Supersonic Man is dispatched to Earth because something so dastardly is about to go down that it will cause ripples throughout the universe! Actually, I think whoever gives orders to Supersonic Man really oversold the threat, not sure the villain would have been too much trouble for a normal person to take out. A professor is kidnapped and Supersonic Man under his guise as Paul comforts her and for reasons unknown will search warehouses as Paul who has no powers so that he can get captured!

Supersonic man seems to have rather vague powers. Seems he has super strength and speed sure, but also the ability to turn a gun into a banana... Suffice to say, he is nearly indestructible to lava, freezing cold and bullets so it makes little sense they they try a flame throwing slowly walking robot at him. The only thing that seems to stop him is high frequency sound.

So, this film is rather lame, but entertaining to watch. I laughed quite a bit when a car goes down a somewhat steep incline and just explodes! Then a boat explodes for no reason and then a house explodes! Everything in this film is very prone to just blowing up! The villain is the typical villain of this era, no powers whatsoever and lots and lots of henchmen. Supervillains literally did not start appearing until like the 2000 films and no Batman's villains are not supervillains, just costumed insane villains!