Will confess right now in not being a fan at all of any of the other Robert the Doll films, no matter the big effort made to try to moderately like them. Still kept watching them because there is always something semi-intriguing about killer dolls and it was sort of for completest sake as well. And it is hard not to be drawn in to films that have ridiculous premises, but have a little potential to be halfway entertaining and creepy if any degree of effort was put into them.
Seeing 'Robert Reborn', again out of curiosity and because the premise did sound interesting (but it was clear from even reading the summary that there was going to be a lot of ridiculousness), it is the best of the Robert the Doll films. Or at least the least bad, with there being a little more effort being put into it than the previous films in the series. There is still a lot wrong with 'Robert Reborn' and in my view it is in no way a good, let alone great, film, even when trying to take it for what it was meant to be.
'Robert Reborn' is the marginally best-looking of the Robert the Doll films. Appreciated that the Toymaker's look was toned down and that he didn't look as goofy this time while the dolls look quite good by the series' standards.
Of the three, the best was Miss Cyclops who did generate some creepiness. There is some spookiness in the music.
Didn't find Robert himself to impress particularly much in 'Robert Reborn'. He is better used than in 'Revenge of Robert the Doll', where the Toymaker was more the main character and Robert was underused and not scary enough support, as he feels more of a lead. What he does is very more of the same however, but it also continues to feel stale. The sound is often too obvious, while the dialogue lacks wit, even trying not to take it seriously. The acting at worst is embarrassing (Lee Bane though does give his best performances of the series though), calling the accents suspect is being kind.
There are nowhere near enough scares (what there are are far from creative and come over as tired and stupid above all else), the suspense is non-existent and the humour could have featured much less or down-played (didn't find any of it particularly amusing). The story is very thin, though it is far less aimless than the previous films, and has no surprises or thrills, it feels very tired and the stupidity goes overboard fast to truly grating effect. While the dolls look quite good and the Toymaker's look is much improved, 'Robert Reborn' still looks cheap and like all the effort went into Robert and the other dolls.
In summation, the best of the films but weak. 3/10
