Puppet Master: Axis Termination (Full Moon Movie Review)

Puppet Master: Axis Termination Distributed By: Full Moon Entertainment / September 15, 2017

To stop the Nazi war machine from winning World War II and affecting the outcome of the free world, BLADE, JESTER, PINHEAD and the rest of the indestructible Toulon puppets join forces with the masters of psychic powers! Teaming up with Toulon’s bloodthirsty marionettes, these unlikely allies face off against a new pack of evil Nazis..

Jimbo:	(0.5 / 5)
Jamie:	(0.0 / 5)
Craig:	(0.0 / 5)
Average:	(0.2 / 5)

Jimbo’s Take

Puppet Master: Axis Termination is the 11th film in a franchise that was exhausted by Puppet Master 5. Yet, here I am still watching this crap! Why do I do this to myself? It’s not the worst film I’ve ever seen, but it’s close. Oh so very close!

Axis Termination concludes (hopefully forever) Charles Band’s “Axis trilogy” that started with Puppet Master: Axis of Evil (Part 9), and Puppet Master X: Axis Rising (Part 10). Of course Full Moon Entertainment is the house that Toulon’s puppets built. The Full Moon brand wouldn’t be in existence if not for this franchise. That may explain, in part, why I’m still watching.

Axis Termination recently premiered in three, roughly 30-minute, parts via streaming services Fullmoonstreaming.com and the Full Moon Channel on Amazon. If you choose to watch, this is the best way to experience this “film”. Why? The story is so dull that you will be bored mere minutes into each segment. There’s only one reason I finished all of Axis Termination. I would pause the episode about 10-15 minutes in, hoping to be near completion. I’d see the counter and think, “Even though I don’t want to, I guess I can give this another 15-20 minutes.” This is what we call poor decision making.

Boiled down to two words, Puppet Master: Axis Termination is cheap and lazy. The cinematographer tries to hide inexperience behind splashing every shot in red and blue gels. The script is abysmal. And the set design? There are fold creases on the Nazi flags! Did the set decorator not have an iron and some water to smooth out the flags? Maybe Director/Producer Charles Band needed the fold creases in tact so they could re-pack and return the flags for a refund after shooting.

In fact, Charles Band is so cheap he even launched an Indiegogo crowd funding campaign to ask fans to fund better puppet effects. Compared to the amazing stop-motion animation in Puppet Master 1-5 these effects are far from acceptable. I’d say that they did achieve better effects than in the previous “Axis” films. However, Charles Band runs a con job, pure and simple, and fans should feel ripped off.

With every review I try to say something nice, so I’ll say this… This poor group of actors! They’re the only ones trying. Under different circumstances I can tell that most of them would do well under a director that actually cared. Band doesn’t give a shit about any of this beyond perpetuating the Full Moon brand. He wants to sell t-shirts and DVDs. I’m not going to criticize him for his business moxie. I just wish he’d actually pay professionals to make decent movies again.

Fans of the Puppet Master films should stick with Parts 1-5 and avoid everything else, especially Puppet Master: Axis Termination.

Jimbo Ranks his Favs:

Puppet Master
Puppet Master 2
Puppet Master 3
Puppet Master 4
Puppet Master 5
Puppet Master: The Legacy (Part 8 – This is a clip show of the first 5 films, but still better than the “originals” below)
Retro Puppet Master (Part 7)
Curse of the Puppet Master (Part 6)
Puppet Master: Axis of Evil (Part 9)
Puppet Master: Axis Termination (Part 11)
Puppet Master X: Axis Rising (Part 10)

Jamie’s Take

I have not seen Puppet Master: Axis Termination. In fact, after Puppet Master 5 I was done with this series as they got progressively cheaper and dumber (is dumber even a real word? I guess it doesn’t matter). I really like the first and third Puppet Master films, check those out. Part II was ok, it has tits. 4 and 5 sucked a huge dripping bag of dirty assholes. As I quote The Who: “Won’t Get Fooled Again!”