Before I went and took ill, I announced a new series by Ed Glaser, a man so talented that he secured a spot on a reviewing site BEFORE he became a reviewer, and his studio, Dark Maze Studios. Tonight I wanted to look at one of his earlier series. While Ninja the Mission Force looks like a good series thus far, it doesn’t quite inspire me the way tonight’s entry does, a tale of a parasitic lifeform attempting to take over humanity and the female cyborg sent back to stop them. I give you Robogirl!
http://blip.tv/robogirl/01-huntress-1453782
The episodes are short (in fact, this is the longest), because Glaser had designed them with mobile devices in mind. So let’s also go with part 2, which features Huntress’ arrival in 2008.
http://blip.tv/robogirl/02-alley-1465847
And suppose we should see her actually fight some Host.
http://blip.tv/robogirl/03-seduction-1490472
There are seven more episodes up at the official website. Unfortunately, the introduced versions episodes hosted by Glaser himself appear to be no longer available. Going by memory, Robogirl was inspired by 80’s sci-fi action movies, and you can see some evidence of The Terminator, as well as Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Interesting that the parasites call themselves “the Host”, though. They don’t spread through sex but “infect” the next generation. By Huntress’s future, they are part of 15% of the planet, yet are powerful enough to attack and wipe out their progenitors.
The fact that each episode–only 3 minutes and under because of the aforementioned attempt to create towards mobile devices circa 2008 (four years later many of the more popular mobile devices can stream much faster)–are so short, judging them is a bit harder. Some later episodes kind of suffer for the lack of story and the explanation of the Host is a bit headscratching if you think about it. However, the action is pretty good and actress Elle Parker (who makes you wish she had to travel as…light…as the Terminators and Reese–I mean, she’s kind of hot) pulls off a good job as Huntress.
The effects are dated even by low-budget standards. Glaser can do better now, but again, this is 2008. We can’t expect the effects here to be as good as Freddie Wong circa 2012. For the time period and budget they are rather good.
I would like to see this series remade or better yet given a sequel based on what today’s mobile devices (not to mention those of us on home computers) can handle. I’m curious how Huntress gets on in this new world. Does she find love? Is there another threat to the Earth that calls on her expertise and skills? Even just a short film would be interesting, even if these aren’t the point of the series.
Robogirl is also available on DVD as well as the online posting and it’s one worth watching. Give the other episode a look when you can.
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