Cyberpunk Review » Cyborg 2087

August 25, 2006

Cyborg 2087

Movie Review By: SFAM

Year: 1966

Directed by: Franklin Adreon

Written by: Arthur C. Pierce

IMDB Reference

Degree of Cyberpunk Visuals: Low

Correlation to Cyberpunk Themes: High

Key Cast Members:

  • Gareth A7: Michael Rennie
  • Dr. Karen Mason: Karen Steele
  • Rating: 4 out of 10

     

    Cyborg 2087 Screen Capture

     

    Overview: On its face, Cyborg 2087 sounds like the plot for the terminator: this guy from a dystopic future comes back to the past to stop the development of a new technology with lots of promise, that ends up destroying humanity as we know it; unfortunately, he is chased by these cyborg things who are bent on stopping him. While there are certainly some similarities, the differences are perhaps broader. Aside from the obvious budget differences, the plot in Cyborg 2087 involves a cyborg returning from the future versus a man, and he’s not trying to perform a “retroactive abortion,” he is doing something similar to Sarah Conner in T2 – he wants to stop the technology from being released at that time.

     

    Cyborg 2087 Screen Capture

     

    The Story Genius scientist Professor Sigmund Marx has created a technology that allows us to guide other people and influence their thoughts. Unfortunately, it turns out that this technology will be subverted by the government and military to engage in mass thought control of the population. In the future, humanity’s freewill has been crushed. Now a race of cyborgs have taken control to maintain stability. A small group of freedom fighters has come upon a method for restoring humanity. They have created a time machine, and intend to send back a cyborg who has had his “control” chip removed – the goal of which is to convince Professor Marx to abandon his experiment, or in worse case, to kill him.

     

    Cyborg 2087 Screen Capture

     

    The cyborg, Gareth A7 (played by Michael Rennie of Day the Earth Stood Still), doesn’t have access to all his technology when he was sent back. Worse, he has a homing beacon implanted in him that will lead the killer cyborgs, called tracers, right to him. He happens upon Professor Marx’s assistant, Dr. Sharon Mason (Karen Steele), and uses the perfected form of Marx’s technology to overwhelm her freewill and force her to assist him. From there it’s a race. The bad cyborgs from the future have arrived and are sporting killer ray guns. Gareth and Sharon must find the professor and convince him prior to the killer cyborgs finding him.

     

    Cyborg 2087 Screen Capture

     

    The Acting: The acting in Cyborg 2087 is fairly sub par. Aside from Michael Rennie, who I just enjoy seeing in another flick, the rest of the cast really falls short. Karen Steele over-emotes, as does her secondary love interest, Harey Carey Jr. The tracers are particularly bad, as are most of the bit characters. The Sheriff, played by Wendell Corey, while over the top, is at least well done. The bottom line here, with a budget as low as this one was, the only way Cyborg 2087 could have worked is if the acting paid off – unfortunately it didn’t.

     

    Cyborg 2087 Screen Capture

     

    The FX: Cyborg 2087 is very low budget, so we can’t expect much in the way of realistic effects. The extent of fanciness here involves making something disappear by taking another shot with the object removed. The ray guns have the cheesy thick white light look, and the outfits are anything but high tech. The opening shot of the futuristic city, which is nothing more than a painting, is at least interesting from the standpoint that it shows you what people in the sixties thought our futuristic cities would look like. At best, Cyborg 2087 tries for the cyberpunk western look, but this too is problematic. Perhaps the worst part of the FX deals with the tracers, who are heavyset guys running around in fake US army costumes. They really coulda spent at least a buck or two to buy an extra who at least was in shape. On top of this, the cartoonish sounding score is especially atrocious. If there were any quality scenes in this movie, the score ensures that they won’t be noticed.

     

    Cyborg 2087 Screen Capture

     

    Cyborgs: In Cyborg 2087, we are told that the cyborgs are a combination of man and machine, but we really don’t get much more of a breakdown than that. We know that they have wide open spaces in their bodies, and that they have the power of five or six men. Basically, the model we get here is of regular people that basically work like simple computers, and are able to have various computer chips embedded in them. In the end, its not a very believable view of cyborgs, and isn’t even a consistent one. We are told that cyborgs have no emotion, but somehow, Gareth falls in love with Sharon. The movie would have worked so much better had he let her die near the end versus what did happen (the heroic rescue).

     

    Cyborg 2087 Screen Capture

     

    The Bottom Line: Arthur Pierce’s script for Cyborg 2087 probably mostly decent (aside for the Hollywood happy ending factor), but unfortunately Franklin Adreon’s directing talents are not enough to bring it to a successful fruition. Far too frequently, Cyborg 2087 comes across as poorly done SciFi cheese. Again, had the acting been decent, one could easily overlook the low-qual FX. Unfortunately this is not the case. However, I did find it worthwhile to watch for one reason only – I loved Michael Rennie in the Day the Earth Stood Still, and really enjoyed seeing him in another flick. His acting is pretty much the same (Stoic, serious, impending doom looking demeanor), but at least we get to see him running around and performing action scenes.

     

    ~See movies similar to this one~

    Comments

    August 26, 2006

    Netsui arts said:

    HI, SFAM
    would you mind posting-linking to a high res of that awesome screen shot or the future city scape?
    m–m
    pretty please with nanos on top?

    SFAM said:

    Hi Netsui, if I had one, I would. Unfortunately, all I have is a capture that someone else got from recording a TV show. You’ll notice the “Space” channel icon in the lower right. The best I can do for you is give you the future city screen cap at 100 percent quality at 720 pixels wide. I hope that works. :)

    August 27, 2006

    Netsui said:

    thankies, perrfect! no, future furfect!

    September 10, 2006

    SteMcNay said:

    This looks like the kind of film I’d enjoy purely for the kitsch factor, low-budget production values, and Michael Rennie. Plus the influence on The Terminator - this is a must see for me. Very cool. I didn’t even know this film existed.

    September 19, 2006

    SFAM said:

    Hi SteMcNay, its definitely worth a watch. Michael Rennie definitely averts this from being a total cheese fest. For some reason, he just excudes cool scifi vibes.

    August 3, 2007

    Doc Thompson said:

    This movie-which I haven’t seen in years-sort of reminded of the Terminator.

    October 22, 2008

    Charles said:

    the second “love inerest” for Karen Steele is Warren Stevens(FORBIDDEN PLANET) not Harry Carey Jr.

    Megazor said:

    Pretty damned good, I’d say, for a theatrical feature film shot in a week on a TV episode budget. And yes, it more clearly presaged THE TERMINATOR than Ellison’s OUTER LIMITS episodes did. Pierce was a visionary who wrote of cyborgs when others had yet no clue of the concept.

    August 3, 2011

    Deadspace said:

    The future that the cyborg comes from sounds a lot like Syndicate.
    Chip control, cyborgs as enforcers..


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