This movie was mentioned in one of my favorite guides to fringe media, "DVD Delirium", and while the review made it sound pretty lightweight and cheesy (while still being better than its sequel and the spin- off TV series), I have a weakness for cheesy and inane superheroics, and managed to track down a copy on "streamdor.com" one slow night when I was reduced to a Chromebook and a phone mobile "hotspot" for my movie fix.
My first reaction:"Uhhhhh...Okay...? They're really going to try to pass this off as a FEATURE?!"
And it didn't get much better after that. But I sort adjusted my expectations downward (to TV movie of the week level), and found enough entertainment to watch it through to the end,
Joan Severance is a pleasure to look at in both her civilian/cop identity and in her "Black Scorpion" duds, so this has that going for it. No, She's not a very convincing fighter, so the fight scenes are mostly jump cuts and stuntmen falling down when she waves a leg in their direction. But she has a nice, crazy gleam in her eye when the mask is on, and she's able to at least give most of her lines of dialog a decent delivery. Bruce Abbott and Garrett Morris are also in here, trying to maintain their respective dignities in thankless parts, and they don't stink or anything, either.
The plot...well, the plot and dialog appear to have been cobbled together by 10th graders who think they are funny. Roger Corman was involved in this at some executive level, which explains a lot...Corman projects almost always have a germ of something interesting or intriguing, something that keeps you watching even when the screenplay leaves plot holes big enough to drive the Scorpionmobile through and the jokes fall flat. (At least there ARE jokes). And such is the case here. I wanted to see how things came out, and so I stuck around until the end.
And in the end, I think, that's all the creators wanted.
"DVD Delirum" mentioned some sequels, but apparently at some point Severance was replaced by another hapless model/actress who didn't have her mojo, so I don't know if I'll bother to watch any more in the series.
But this? This was...Okay.
My first reaction:"Uhhhhh...Okay...? They're really going to try to pass this off as a FEATURE?!"
And it didn't get much better after that. But I sort adjusted my expectations downward (to TV movie of the week level), and found enough entertainment to watch it through to the end,
Joan Severance is a pleasure to look at in both her civilian/cop identity and in her "Black Scorpion" duds, so this has that going for it. No, She's not a very convincing fighter, so the fight scenes are mostly jump cuts and stuntmen falling down when she waves a leg in their direction. But she has a nice, crazy gleam in her eye when the mask is on, and she's able to at least give most of her lines of dialog a decent delivery. Bruce Abbott and Garrett Morris are also in here, trying to maintain their respective dignities in thankless parts, and they don't stink or anything, either.
The plot...well, the plot and dialog appear to have been cobbled together by 10th graders who think they are funny. Roger Corman was involved in this at some executive level, which explains a lot...Corman projects almost always have a germ of something interesting or intriguing, something that keeps you watching even when the screenplay leaves plot holes big enough to drive the Scorpionmobile through and the jokes fall flat. (At least there ARE jokes). And such is the case here. I wanted to see how things came out, and so I stuck around until the end.
And in the end, I think, that's all the creators wanted.
"DVD Delirum" mentioned some sequels, but apparently at some point Severance was replaced by another hapless model/actress who didn't have her mojo, so I don't know if I'll bother to watch any more in the series.
But this? This was...Okay.