Popeye Returns Film Review

Just when you thought that the days of very cheaply made horror films that happen to have a cartoon character as the villain were gone we get another one. With this oddly enough being a sequel to the film Popeye's Revenge and what's more then that is the fact that there are further TWO sequels to this film already in post production and are coming out some time this year and so then join me as I review the film is just a big load of nothing with the film in question being called simply just "Popeye Returns" enjoy.

The plot of this film is eight years after the events of the of the first film Popeye starts targeting the one lone survivor from the first film whilst also being hunted down himself by a group of government army men who want to keep him locked up. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really bad. Look to be real this films plot is just so bad as even tho it is a very extremely thin plot alot of the time it does feel like that the film doesn't have a plot to begin with with it feeling like the film is just a bunch of scenes loosely tied together. Popeye's Revenge for all of it's faults at the very least had a plot yes granted it was a bad plot but it was still a plot with a beginning , a middle and an end here we barely get a beginning before the film ends which makes it more baffling as to why the makers of this film decided to stretch this thin plot over THREE films when doing it in just one film would have worked all the more better, there is nothing redeemable about this films plot as it is a very lazy plot that the makers of this film should feel ashamed about and while yes granted these B movie horror films never have te best of plots to them in the first place but they still will nine out of ten have a plot to begin with and when this film can't even do that right then it right away is a huge red flag as now we the audience have no reason to get invested in the films plot as the makers of the film themselves aren't even bothering to make it good in the first place with the plot of this film not really being really rather entertaining and as well as not really being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. 

Starring in this film is Ashley Bedford as Dave , Jodie Bennet as Milly , Fitim DeStena as Dylan and Harriet Hope as Jen. Also starring in this film is Jack Hyde as Mendoza , Celine Mandy Kosch as Mindy , Olivia Lennox as Alice , Bannister Doll Heist star Christopher Morley as O'Brien , Skullhunter star Steven Murphy as Popeye , Ever After star Lara Sas as Cassie , Liz Stef as June and Jenna Wilson as Alina.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really bad. Again you do expect these types of films to have bad acting in them as the main reason to watch these films is never the acting it's always what they are going to be with the cartoon character that they are turning into the main villain and that's that which is fair enough but there still needs to be some amount of effort put into the acting to make it worth while as while yes alot of this films actors are indeed trying to turn in a good performance they are let down by poor directing from this films editor and director William Stead with the only actor who really can't take any blame as it is her first proper acting job being Celine Mandy Kosch. With the best actor in this film being Steven Murphy as Popeye as he is the only actor reprising his role from Popeye's Revenge therefor he does have a good grip on how best to perform as this character which is a skill that does put to great use in this film with him having a certain charm about him does make you wonder what it is that this character can really do which is something that really does shine through in his final performance. With the acting that's in this very film really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so bad as it gives none of this films actors absolutely anything to work with interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does harm the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.

The films characters much like pretty much everything in this film are really nothing to write home about. As all of this films character are for lack of a better word forgettable as there is nothing about them that makes them stand out as they all feel like character tropes and not fully formed characters with this being something that does make sense as this film would have been cheaply and quickly with the other two films but there still should have been more time spent in making these characters appear to somewhat memorable as the only character who is slightly memorable is Cassie and even then it's due to the fact that she's the main final girl of the film and not due to anything she says or does in the film itself. As none of her friends are that memorable infact they all just blend into one and Alice herself due to the share nature of character can't be that memorable of a character with the only character who is memorable is rightfully the films title killer Popeye and even he doesn't get alot of screen time in this film with him feeling like a side character in his own movie and yet what little screen time the character does have in the film he does do something that's more memorable then the rest of the characters and heck it could even be argued that Popeye is the films best character as while there isn't all that much to him as a character there is still an attempt to make him a decent character whereas with any of the films other characters it felt like that they were there just so Popeye had people to kill and not because of the fact that they added anything to the films story, these characters are the kinds of characters that you would expect to see in the first draft of a script and while this film might not have had the budget to do a re-write it really did need one just to fix up how poorly handled alot of this films characters are even when not being compared to Popeye.

As was mentioned at the very start of this review this film is a sequel to the film Popeye's Revenge however you don't have to see that film as the film spends a good few minuets early on in the film playing alot of the third act final battle from that film. This was just such a stupid thing to do as all it does is make it more obvious that the makers of this film didn't really have much of a plot and are just using those scenes not to catch up with the plot as the girl who is meant to be a survivor from those attacks wasn't even in the film in the first place and there those scenes just feel like they were added to the film so that the makers of this film could truly market this film as a sequel as there is nothing from that film that appears in this film outside of having the same actor playing Popeye and one reference to the previous film at the start of the film and that's it. For all of the hate that Silent Night Deadly Night 2 gets for just being a glorified clip show of the first film they still made a logical attempt to connect the two films together where as here there is none of that as it does feel like that the makers of this film had no idea on what to do for a sequel and therefor they just came up with the laziest thing over one night and called it a day, now I admittedly haven't seen Popeye's Revenge since it first came out therefor my memory on the ending is a little hazy but it there might have been away to do a direct sequel to that film and still have it play a bigger part in the bigger plot that they are trying to tell just by having the survivors of the previous film be the runs that are helping these new characters out as given the fact that the apparent lone survivor is meant to be related to the main character of the previous film it does make sense that she would come back to help her out in this film whilst also hinting that there are bigger things at play by having Popeye not only trying to kill these character but also working on Spinach that would help him stronger and more insane that right there connects the two films together and sets up a bigger plot better then what this film actually does.

Let's take a second to talk about the editing because of you thought that William Stead made for a great editor then you'd be wrong. As this film is edited so poorly with us barely being able to make out anything that happens as there are alot of cuts going on in any given scene with no scene being given the room that it needs to breath and for us the audience to truly soak in what's happening which does make alot of this film a very confusing mess to follow and heck even the ending to Popeye's Revenge is edited in a way that it does make it look like one of the characters in this film was the main character from the previous film when a simple search of Google tells you differently the only thing that could have made the editing in this film be all the more better was if William Stead just took his time in certain scenes and not rush or cut them to the high heavens as all this does is leave your audience confused as to what's actually happening in the film. Something that was also mentioned at the start of this review is the fact that this film has two other sequels coming out and yeah you really can tell as the film doesn't even properly finish telling it's own story is just fades to black before a "To Be Continued" card pops up with this film quite literally being nothing more then set up for the other two films which wouldn't be a bad thing if this film was actually good in the first place but it's not therefor people are less likely to watch films 3 and 4 in this Popeye's Revenge franchise as the first two films have made it clear as day that they are bad films and yet if the makers of this film put in alot of thought and effort into making this film not only good but also stand on it's own without the need for the other 2 films then people what be excited to watch the other two films as they would have seen just how good that the makers of this film can be.

While the previous film at the very least made an attempt to connect it self to the Popeye lore by also giving us a more Harley Quinn-esque version of Olive Oyl. Here we only get one reference to Bluto at the start of the film this might be because he could be playing a bigger role in one of the sequels with his name being shown to us here as a way to set up that that name could becoming back later on down the line which is fair enough but there still needs to be more of a tie to the Popeye lore then just having Popeye in it like maybe they they could have Whimpy show up granted this isn't much but it would be better then nothing at all but in all fairness the idea of having Bluto play a bigger role in one of the sequels does make sense given the fact that in the original comics and cartoons he and Popeye are meant to be enemies. This film is just one big helping of nothing as that's exactly what happens for alot of the film nothing happens to the advance the plot of the film , the characters are poorly done and the editing is terrible granted its not as bad as it was in Taken 3 but it is still pretty bad and while we do need to give these films more of a leeway when it comes to how they are made as these films are usually made cheaply and quickly but we still do need to call them out when they do something that's just flat out bad like for example the film does build up a mystery over who this guy is that appears at the start of the movie but then disappears for so long that you actually forget that he's in the movie with film making us think that he's either tied to one of the characters in the previous film due to how certain scene are edited or the fact he is Bluto only for it to be revealed that he's jus a guy which makes that entire subplot feel pointless as the makers of this film very easily could have said who he was right away instead of having him appear once and then forgotten about for at the very least forty minuets to only then reveal that he's not that important of a character.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and eight minuets and twelve seconds. Which for any film let alone one of these low budget horror films is such a short amount of running tike for the film to have and given the fact that the film does send more time on setting up things for the third and fourth films then it does in actually telling it's own story altho in saying this maybe the film being this short is a blessing in the disguise as it does mean that we get to be out of this film in alot less time but this film still should a longer running time just to flesh out alot of its own ideas and alot of it's characters and not just have them pushed to the side to set up the other two films with this film no even having enough plot there to really cover that amount of running time in the first place. With the film not even using what little running time that it already has very wisely as the film doesn't take the time to fully develop its plot as the plot of the film as very very wafer thin at best with it feeling more like the plot to someones bad fanfiction only now it's the plot of a film and what's worse is the fact that if this film did deed dedicate more time to its plot and fully developed it then it could have worked but its made clear as day that the makers of this film cared about giving us pointless flash back scenes that they did about giving us a fully developed plot. This is something that does also effect the films character development as due to the fact that the films opening flashback to the previous film eats up a good three to five minuets and the fac that we get a pointless flashback to the eighties which eats up five minuets on its own then this films character are not only fighting for screen time due to there being far to many characters for a film this long to have in the first place but it does also mean that none of them can get any sort of character development with the makers of this film making it perfectly clear that they are more interested in setting up the sequels instead of giving us well thought out and developed character but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.

So now then as this is a slasher film that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual kills that are actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual kills that are actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really bad. It's in the films kill where we really do get to see just how small that this films budget really was as they all commit that single biggest sin that any slasher film can commit when it comes to there kills and that's the fact that alot of this films kills happen OFF SCREEN we will see Popeye raise a weapon to kill people with but then the film cuts away just as he is about to land the finishing blow which is something that would be fine for one or two kills but no all of this films kills are like. Heck this happens to so often that the film can't even have a best kill because we never get to see what it is that kills them off in the first place and yet even alot of the really bad horror films still let us see what it is that kills of there victims granted this might be the case because of the fact that the other two films were being made at the same time but if your going to be making a slasher film then you need to show us the kills that is slasher film making 101 with the closest thing to a kill that we actually see being in the opening scene where a girl gets her head trampled by Popeye which is a cool kill but even that one we don't get to see all that much of and therefor we really aren't scared for the rest of the film with the rest of the films kills being just as bad as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Overall it really is telling when the best live action filmed version of Popeye the one from 1980 never got a sequel and yet one of the many Popeye horror films not only got a bad sequel but is also getting two other films with this film not really does a good job of getting you excited of the third film in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 0 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boy and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Tenor , Amazon . Co  Uk , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images from this film being Google Images simply because Google Images actually has images from this film really are up and on Google Images and plus pretty much much all of the images that I personally found on Google Images were all really very fairly high quality and as well as being as really very fairly high definition as well and so then horror fans we end this review as we always do with really our one and true goddess Elvira wishing us all some really very unpleasant dreams.