Original
Title:
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Short Film Review
Zordax II - The Metal War  |
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Year
of Release:
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2006 |
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Duration:
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12 minutes |
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Country
of Origin:
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Tagline(s): |
2045 La civilisation n'est plus
(2045 Civilization is not any more).
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Reviewed
Version Rating:
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Review: |
I first heard about
this film only a couple of months ago. It was listed as showing at a couple
of film festivals, both in Canada and France, so it couldn't be too bad. I had a little chat with the director, Syl Disjonk, who informed me that the film was a homage to '80's PA movies like Endgame, 2019 and Stryker.
Super! A short while later a copy arrived in the post. The cover is
well-designed, and the little posters I received were superb. I
couldn't wait to fire up the DVD player. So I did.
We start with a short monologue. The text on screen is read out by an annoying voice, trying too hard be cool and tough. It's important to explain the state of the world, 95% of '80's PA's start with a voice-over of some kind, but this doesn't seem to work here, as the voice is too forced. It didn't put me in the mood, and I imagine for non-PA fans it would totally put them off. The French version has a similar voice, but the text is still in English. This may have worked better without the voice completely. A long opening shot of a desert slowly pans from a close up of a warning sign and skulls to a long shot of our Hero walking towards the camera. The music is exactly what you would want, very much like the 80's PA synth, but with a little extra juice, clean and fast, mounting the pressure. The film grain is perfect. This has obviously seen a lot of post-production to give it this orange desert tint (before/after), but the footage has also been given a very slight flicker. The ability to add scratches to replicate the look of old film is now easily available and much overused in my opinion, but this is done in the smallest and most convincing possible way. This looks exactly like it should and is comparable to the opening shot in The New Barbarians. This opening shot is 100% 80's PA, and much better than I could possibly expect. Kudos to the crew. 
 It's
pretty hard to follow up such a great opening shot, but the film manages to
continue with a reasonably good atmosphere. Our Hero scavenges some
scissors from somebody's ancient remains and finds a fresh body lying
on a pile of junk. He tries to take a ring from the man's
body, but it turns out he's not quite dead. "Zordax!" screams out the man. Nice.
After a title screen, we move forward in time a little. A gas-masked Barbarian runs through the desert and hides behind a dune. As our hero emerges from a distant hill, the Barbarian takes aim and shoots the hero with his laser pistol. Cool sound effect.  Time to meet Zordax and his
crew. They are only a small bunch of Barbarians, although the camera
works hard in trying to make the gathering look bigger. All
the costumes are great and there's a good cross-section of
post-apocalyptic characters, some with shoulder pads, some with
gas-masks and even a child holding some bones. Zordax himself is an imposing character and well cast. His speech involves a crazy rant about killing all remaining humans, again like in The New Barbarians.
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next scene is quite long, reasonably well-acted, and has some great
props, but it's just not interesting for me, and makes little sense.
Our hero, who was earlier shot turns out to have just been wounded, and is now captured and tied up in Zordax's
base. Dr Cergum (Zordax's mandatory torture guy) is just a little
bit mental, and after Zordax and his woman turn up to persuade Cergum
to work harder he decides to electrocute the hero. Cue lots of electric
special effects. Sometime during this, Cergum decides he has had enough.
After spouting some Shakespeare he shoots himself, and the hero has to
struggle to free himself.
   So our hero breaks free,
finds a machete, and heads out to get his revenge on Zordax and his
team. Needless to say, the final showdown is against Zordax himself,
and there's quite a surprise ending that's a direct homage to an
Italian PA, which I won't spoil here.
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I really liked this film
and can highly recommend it. I was honestly shocked by the opening shot,
everything is just so spot on it's unbelievable. The music throughout is
perfect and director Syl has obviously seen a lot of PA's. There are a few bits that
I can pick at, and have done so above, but they’re minor problems in what's a
great achievement for a no budget independent production. I just wish it was
longer, as there's a lot of potential, and some of the characters deserved
more time on screen. I would love to see some more PA action from Syl Disjonk. Don't stop now! Give us more Zordax! P.S. Where's Zordax I? |
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Quotes:
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"ZORDAX!!!!!!!!!" -
Barbarian |
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Connections
With Other PA's:
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Styled like the Italian '80's
PA's and includes multiple references to classic PA's. |
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Regular
Movie Goers Scores:
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An interesting 12 minutes. Some
impressive visuals from an independent project. |
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For
the PA Collector:
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Great for any fan of true '80's PA movies. |
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Purchase
Point:
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DVD
Release Info:
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Released with both original French (optional English subtitles) and English dubbed audio. A well-designed box. No other extras on the disc.
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Media:
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| Box Cover(s): | Region free DVD |
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Poster(s): |
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| Trailer(s): | Wanted |
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