Director: René Cardona
Year: 1972
Country: Mexico
Alternate Titles: El increíble profesor Zovek
Genre: Creature Feature
Plot:
Brought in by the government, a master fighter with psychic powers and his assistant find their assignment to bring down a dangerous criminal mastermind when they find his released deformed, mutated beings are put under control and forcing them to deal with all of them as well as the initial target.
Review:
There's some pretty big problems with this one that really hinder it from generating all that it really could've with this story. That in itself is the main problem, that it really doesn't exploit it's fine premise more than it could've, as this one seems to be ripe with the potential of featuring all sorts of confrontations with the mutated beings in different conflagrations against the hero as he locks up against them on his path to stop the creator at the center of it, yet instead this one decides to make the psychic powers and physical prowess he can demonstrate far more often than what really should be necessary.
Even starting off with a ten-minute long session among governmental agents to prove his powers are indeed true makes for a rather convoluted and completely draining experience to start off with that really takes the life out of the movie before it even starts, and then throughout the film as it's filled with all sorts of double-crosses and spy-movie machinations as he attempts to escape the trap-filled lair rather than fight the creatures to finally get free. Perhaps it's for the best, though, with the laughable and hardly intimidating make-up on the creatures with oversized denture-fangs and artificial drool to complete the demented look, yet it just comes off as amateurish and laughable when compared to other, better jobs at the same time.
These here really ruin what could've been a fun entry with plenty of cheesiness to fill this one, with stuff like the continuous usage of his psychic powers to overcome guards, move objects around and generally make everyone else look like a goof for his benefit after having ample evidence that he's capable of doing so with no further attempt to contain the powers, numerous brawls with the security guards and other agents to display some marginal martial arts skills and a fantastic brawl with the wildest creature during a classic burning-down-the-castle finale that offers up some nice action and stunt-work with the final resolution. This really could've been a lot of fun if it wasn't so flawed.
Overview: **.5/5
A decidedly decent-enough offering but too flawed for what it is, there's enough here to be quite enjoyable even though this one is brought down heavily by several factors that are present throughout here. Those with an appreciation or curiosity about this type of genre fare will have a lot to like here, while most others out there might want to heed caution.
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