Completely Unhinged Sci-Fi Action Flick Is Proof That Anybody Can Make A Movie

By Robert Scucci
| Published 1 minute ago

Whenever anybody I know criticizes a movie, book, or piece of art for not meeting their standards, my first response is always, “you make something better then!” My logic is that most movie watchers couldn’t if given the budget and resources to make a story come to life. It’s easy to criticize somebody else’s creation while doing nothing, and it’s tremendously hard to have a vision, plan it out, execute, and get it out there for the world to see. I do this with music all the time in my own attempts to put my money where my mouth is in the form of crude DIY recordings performed in my apartment with varying levels of success. I’m also more forgiving than my peers when movies like 2011’s Manborg, something that’s clearly a passion project, have limitations they either need to lean into or ignore entirely for the sake of saving face.

Manborg is the perfect example of somebody just going out there and doing it, and actually making something worth watching for (allegedly) less than a thousand dollars. Steven Kostanski filmed the entire project in his garage and dumpster dived for materials needed for costumes and set pieces. It took a year to film and then another two years of post-production to pull off, and for that he deserves the utmost praise for fully realizing his dystopian sci-fi saga that’s a strange, uncanny mix between The Terminator and Gladiator.

Manborg Is Total Insanity

Manborg boasts a simple premise but slams its story forward through wild visuals, composed mostly of Chroma key backdrops. The film kicks off with a battle involving Count Draculon (Adam Brooks) and his empire of Nazi goons who plan to take over planet Earth through any means necessary. A brave, nameless soldier (Matthew Kennedy) dies a brutal death at the hands of Draculon, but is resurrected and fused with cybernetic parts thanks to Dr. Scorpius (also Adam Brooks).

Waking up in Mega-Death City, the soldier, now calling himself Manborg, teams up with a leather jacket wearing, bleach blonde resistance fighter named Justice (Conor Sweeny), his cyberpunk sister, Mina (Meredith Sweeney), and a martial arts expert only known as #1 Man (portrayed by Ludwig Lee and voice dubbed by Kyle Hebert).

In Mega-Death City, gladiatorial combat keeps the masses entertained, with demon soldiers under the command of Shadow Mega (Andrea Karr) ripping members of the resistance to shreds in the arena. At this point in Manborg’s established universe, no human has made it out alive to warn the others. But Manborg isn’t an ordinary human, and may be the only shot at overthrowing Count Draculon once and for all.

Has No Right Being This Fun

While it’s worth noting that Manborg is a bootstrapped microbudget project filmed almost entirely in a garage, the visuals work to the story’s advantage. There’s an uncanny valley feel to almost every scene, since most of the backdrops and set pieces were crafted in post-production. Everything has a stop-motion swagger to it, including the human actors interacting with their puppet counterparts. Knowing the production history makes it clear that writer/director Steven Kostanski was working within major limitations, but anybody watching Manborg blind would probably think the look was an intentional stylistic choice.

Manborg is a dystopian grindhouse battle that effortlessly looks the part. It’s cheesy but charming, and it works if you’re looking for a breezy watch that proves you can pull off something ambitious if you simply commit to your own imagination.

Rating films like Manborg isn’t an easy task because you have to consider intent and limitations as part of the equation. For what it’s trying to accomplish, it’s a stellar feat of producing cinema through brute force and what I assume is more patience than I’ll ever have in producing anything. Compared to big-budget blockbusters, it’s obviously rough, but the context makes it genuinely impressive. The over the top, melodramatic dialogue further enhances the visuals, signaling that the project shouldn’t be taken too seriously while still showcasing the care that went into making it.

Manborg is streaming for free on Tubi.