Metal Man DVD Review

Written by James "Spez" Ferguson

DVD released by Midnight Releasing

Directed by Ron Karkoska
Written by Carlos Perez
2008, Region 1 (NTSC), 86 Minutes, Not Rated
DVD released on June 8^th, 2010

Starring
Reggie Bannister as Dr. Blake
Leah Grimsson as Julie
Samuel Nathan Hoffmire as Kyle / Metal Man
P. David Miller as Sebastian
Katherine Pawlak as Diana

Review:

There's a reason that the Iron Man movie made a ton of money.  It was a big budget comic book movie with a great director, an all-star cast, and an interesting story.  Picture the opposite of that and you have the premise of Metal Man, a film about a lab tech named Kyle (Samuel Nathan Hoffmire) that gets fused with a suit cobbled together from pieces of children's toys and various things from a junk yard.  After some thugs kill Dr. Blake (Reggie Bannister), the creator of this clearly state-of-the-art technology, Kyle sets out to bring them to justice.  Meanwhile Sebastian, the guy that orchestrated the whole project, is trying to replicate the powers of the suit with his own piece of crap.  Oh, and Dr. Blake's consciousness is somehow downloaded into Kyle's suit so he has a creepy old man in his head.

Metal Man looks like a couple friends got together and tried to make their own Iron Man movie.  The problem is that they didn't have any money and didn't know how to act or make a movie.  What we're left with is a convoluted mess that drags on far longer than it has to.  This might have worked as a short film but as a feature it just feels awkward.

As far as acting, Hoffmire actually does a halfway decent job in Metal Man, but he's the only one to do so.  Unfortunately his "Gee Whiz" look doesn't translate well to the main character and he just doesn't have the acting chops to carry the whole film.  So what you're left with is one decent performance half of the time, and the other half is just filled with suck.

The big difference between this and Iron Man is that Kyle is actually stuck in the suit.  He can command it go to invisible so he looks normal, but he's actually wearing it the entire time.  How he goes to the bathroom is never addressed, but he has to eat these weird shakes that seem to be made of motor oil and wheat grass to survive.  This also makes things really strange when Kyle tries to get intimate with a lady.

I feel sorry for anyone that goes into a video store looking for Iron Man or an Iron Man -esque movie and ends up picking this up instead.  Metal Man is what it is: a shameless cash grab.

Video and Audio:

Video, audio and special features will not be graded as this was a screener.

Grades:
Movie:
Video:	n/a
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