Battle of the Damned, 2013.
Written and Directed by Christopher Hatton.
Starring Dolph Lundgren, Melanie Zanetti, Matt Doran, David Field and Jen Sung.
SYNOPSIS:
Following a deadly viral outbreak, private military soldier Max Gatling leads a handful of survivors and a ragtag band of robots against an army of the infected.
Some films just have a synopsis that jumps out, slaps you in the face and forcibly drags you helplessly to whichever venue it is playing at, whether big screen, or small screen. One such film, for me, is Battle of the Damned. Take a name. Let’s say, Dolph Lundgren. Then throw the word Zombies in. On top of that throw in the word Robots. Dolph Lundgren, zombies and robots. It’s almost musical the way it rolls off the tongue.
Dolph has been a busy man in the last year, following Expendables 2. He’s mixed some very solid straight to video action films like The Package, with some more ambitious (and still low budget) action films like Universal Soldier: Day Of Reckoning. He’s thrown in the quirky indie flick, Small Apartments too. In addition he’s had a number of uber-low budget, slightly underwhelming (to be polite) actioners such as Hard Rush and Blood of Redemption. What has been a common line of late is that Dolph has either been a support player or a villain, doing a variety of roles with less screen time.
So, Battle of the Damned sees the first bona-fide Dolph led feature in quite a while. He’s the main man, the leading force in the picture and he’s there for the majority of the run time. Something like Hard Rush for example is sold as being a Dolph led picture, but really isn’t. It’s a common trait in the straight to vid action world these days. So when you see a star on the front cover, and they actually do lead the picture, it’s good to see, and nowadays the exception to the rule.
Lundgren stars here as Max Gatling. He’s sent into a zombie ridden, cordoned off City to rescue a wealthy business man’s (the man also responsible for said zombie outbreak) daughter. That’s basically the plot, done and dusted. Dolph has to get in, get the girl and get out, facing all manner of problems along the way. Gatling, the girl and the band of survivors they encounter face seemingly impossible odds of escaping the quarantined, zombie laden City (with it due to be blown up soon, just to complicate things further). When Gatling stumbles upon a band of roaming military robots (as you do), they may just have a chance.
Battle of the Damned is really cheap. I mean really, really cheap. This is Asylum level but regardless it’s good fun. Tongues are firmly in cheek, though they perhaps could have pushed the humour a bit more. Not necessarily getting to Naked Gun levels, but it should be even funnier than it is, and filled with a few more cheesy lines. The film is a breezy 90 minutes, and doesn’t slow down too often, the problem though is that director Christopher Hatton struggles to hide the budget. Granted Lundgren’s home cinema outings are renowned for their lavish production values, but this takes cheapness to almost whole new levels for Dolph. The action suffers from overuse of shaky cam and a total lack of on screen practical effects, with muzzle flashes, squibs, explosions all entirely done in post-production, and likewise most of the zombie gore is too, with a minimal of on-set guts put before the camera. Dolph gets to use his martial arts to annihilate zombies, and at the very least the action is kinetic. The Malaysian setting provides an effective setting for a desolate, dying, zombie wasteland though, while some of the interiors are nicely shot.
Lundgren at least seems engaged. He’s playing a stereotypical grunting soldier of fortune, and it’s a walk in the park role for him, but his presence stands head and shoulders over the rest of the cast (who for a movie of this sort, aren’t too bad). Well known Aussie actor David Field is the best of the rest as the self appointed leader of the survivors group.
In all, this film doesn’t quite deliver on the overall promise of the premise, the artwork, nor the positively fantastic character name, Max Gatling, which Dolph is given. It could have been a bit more humorous, and certainly lacks a standout set piece, but it’s still a reasonably entertaining piece of Friday night entertainment which should satisfy undemanding fans of action, and zombie flicks.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Tom Jolliffe
