- a.k.a.: The Blade Master
- Directed by Joe D’Amato
- December 16, 1982
Ator and his current mentor travel to save his aged PREVIOUS mentor from the evil Zor. First he wanted to marry his sister. Now he’s living in a cave with an old man.
After some heavy exposition setting up much of the movie we get a very succinct recap of the last film. They even highlight the incest Ator (Miles O’Keeffe) wanted to engage in! That does not explain why he for all intents and purposes abandoned his bride to live in a cave with a mute old Asian man whom the narration claims to be his teacher but is often subservient to the student. I’m not sure if anybody thought through the implications of what they were writing when they made these movies.
The villain Zor (David Brandon) is after the secrets of the Geometric Nucleus which are two words when connected that sound cool but tells you NOTHING! I have no idea what this thing does or looks like and neither will you making the exercise of watching the movie often pointless or just confusing. If this were a comedy such an action could be turned into a running gag but they think they are making something serious.
Nothing much happens in this movie. Really! There are moments where Ator shows off his amazing knowledge and fighting skills but overall there’s not enough content to justify 90 minutes worth of a movie. We get a lot of scenes of characters traveling or doing whatever they’re doing. The time spent with Ator’s glider alone could double as not only a construction tutorial but one on operation as well.
Ator’s new teacher/cave buddy “Show Me That” Thong (Chen Wong) never says two words. People talk to him, but he never says anything back. He spouted no words of wisdom. He fights a lot but fighting a lot and being a wise and knowledgeable teacher are two separate things. Did they just hire some random Asian actor with no ability to speak English or Italian?
Ator’s previous teacher Akronos (Charles Borromel) has an attractive daughter named Mila (Lisa Foster) that Ator demonstrates little romantic interest in visually with dialogue implying there’s something going on between the two. And is her dad her dad or her daddy? Or both? Given the implications of the first film, it could be. And was Ator moving around getting free educations after the first movie?
I can think of no great defining traits of any of the characters. The villain of Zor is barely in this. Ator talks to people in a condescending tone. And it looks like it was filmed in a park. A nice park, but still a park. It is quite possibly a prime example of bad filmmaking. Yet it makes you watch like a slow motion accident. “What else can go wrong?” you ask with your eyes locked on the screen.
Sometimes I call movies a frozen burrito that after you eat it and feel bad but once the memory fades you will eat again. Ator 2-L’invincibile Orion or Ator 2: Orion the Invincible or The Blade Master is not one of them. It may be a frozen burrito, but it is one of last option when everything else edible is gone from the house. Just starve.
Warren Watched A Movie 