Iota Electron Monarch of the Moon may lack the authenticity of the original 1940s serials, but very little else is missing. The Lowry brothers and their crew have lovingly crafted a tribute to the likes of King of the Rocketmen, Zombies from the Stratosphere, The Black Widow, The Phantom, Dick Tracy etc... The DVD allows you the option to view the feature in colour or in good ol' black and white. Monarch of the Moon is best viewed in Black and white, the heavy shadows don't fair too well in colour. Blane Wheatley is a wonderful protagonist, who over acts perfectly without making a mockery of his role. Monica Himmelheber is gorgeous.Serials are a risky genre to tackle. Simply put, people either "get it" or hate it. It's a genre that is filled with ridiculousness that doesn't strive to be serious. It borrows from an era when anything was possible, a golden age for western society that has since had it's "can do anything" attitude replaced with scepticism and doubt. Modern movie goers need their crazy served to them in a serious, "believable" manner (Transformers). God forbid that a viewer should still have to rely on their imagination while watching a flick... This isn't an attempt to sound like a snob. It's just a honest observation that audiences prefer the wonders of modern CG (which in recent years has proved that it can produce damn near anything and look amazing) to stylish (possibly (and in this case) low budget) fx. I enjoyed Monarch of the Moon greatly. My only complaint with the feature would be that it struggles to include unnecessary comedic roles and tidbits. It sadly dumbs down the feature at points and disrupts the pacing.Fans of the old Republic serials should enjoy Monarch of the Moon. It's fun and doesn't let the genre down. It's also incredibly interesting to see new methods of cinematography used to recreate rich archaic styles. Sadly, anything relating to serials of the past is doomed to only be praised if it is a slick reference hidden in Lost or a J.J. Abrahms internet teaser pic. Feature length tributes such as Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and Monarch of the Moon appear to be losing their spot in Hollywood. Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skulls was mocked for it's now infamous fridge scene. Yet this scene fits perfectly in a serial inspired production. I felt it was a great way of capturing the heroes inevitable demise that concludes each chapter of a serial, only to have his miraculous survival explained a week later. Crystal Skulls failed as a movie for other reasons, the oft mocked fridge scene is just misunderstood.There is an audience for the serial genre, I hope that creative minds will continue to figure out ways in which to keep it alive.

Robert J. Maxwell I couldn't get past the first twenty minutes of this blurry, black-and-white, overdone spoof of wartime matinée thrillers. The Nazis, having captured an American flier, put him through experiments involving bee venom. It backfires and he escapes to become "Yellowjacket," scourge of Nazi spies, saboteurs, slobs, and pederasts back in the good old U.S. of A.Everything about the movie is shoddy and cheap. I know it's supposed to be like that because this is a "spoof", right? But it wasn't funny. It was impossible to get caught up in the comic-book story. I cared for none of the characters played by deliberately incompetent actors. A painful thing to watch, though not, I suppose, as bad as being an experimental subject in a study of bee venom. It looks as if it might have been a lot of fun to make, but the fun ended for me when the production wrapped.If you find this sort of thing amusing, then rent it or buy it. But whatever virtues the film might have, got past me entirely. Think twice.

communicator-1 This serial spoof is a hoot from beginning to end. If you are a fan of the old Saturday Matinée serials, you will most likely enjoy this, as I did. I rented this from Blockbuster,and ended up buying it. All the clichés are intact, and the actors play their (ridiculous) characters with extreme earnestness. The cinematography includes scratches and fading at times, to give the impression of age. This must have been an interesting experience in movie theaters, as each episode ends with "continued next week", and the following episode recaps what you just saw. There are plenty of laughs, but perhaps you need to be a serial fan to "get" all of the references.

rkimble-1 Comedies, even spoofs, are more difficult to make than most people realize. and when it comes to spoofing an old film style, most professional directors fail. Mel Brooks succeeded with "Young Frankenstein" but failed with "High Anxiety" and "Silent Movie". Others have failed spoofing the old 40's serials, the only exception being a movie that is not truly a spoof of the serials, but yet is funny and exciting: "Raiders of the Lost Ark". "Monarch of the Moon" is another attempt to spoof the Flash Gordon, Batman and Zorro type serials from days gone by. Its obvious that these people love the genre and had a lot of fun making this, but, for the most part,it doesn't work. The main deficits in the film are slow pacing and a mix of acting styles and skills. Some of the actors are playing their roles fairly straight (Yellow Jacket, the Bear Scout kid and Dragonfly for example), while others are spoofing stereo-types (his drunken sidekick) while yet some others are playing it for silly slapstick (the secretary). Individually, many of these work, but together in a film, they clash against each other. Additionally, the script can't decide how far to go in the spoof and sometimes steps too close to absurdity and is occasionally derisive of the genre. There are a couple of funny lines and a few good performances, but for a seemingly long, slow-paced film . . .its not enough. One does have to compliment all involved for their effort and for the detail they gave to the project. Good costuming, good CG, good makeup and good sets. The music score is okay as written, but is apparently performed on less-than-great synthesizers and so has a cold, distant, unexciting feel. Worth seeing for those of us who are budding, low budget filmmakers, but I'm not 100% sure that it was worth the 20 bucks for the DVD.