BLADE: THE IRON CROSS

Hello everyone, earlier this week I talked about Nat Brehmer's Puppet Master Complete. A fantastic companion to the Puppet Master franchise the same way that Crystal Lake Memories is to Friday the 13th. If you get a chance, pick it up. While reading it, I was reminded that there was still more Puppet Master.

All this brings me to BLADE: The Iron Cross. This was the first time that Puppet Master would receive a spin-off. Not surprising is that it would focus on Blade, the poster child of the franchise in a way. There is another spin-off coming with Doctor Death. It's honestly a natural progression and evolution of the series. 

The story of The Iron Cross picks up after the ending of Axis Termination. Oh yes, we are still in the WWII Era - 1945. By this point, it could easily feel like a cash grab. I mean, in my opinion, the Axis trilogy wasn't necessarily a hit for me. Well at least, Axis Termination kinda fell off the mark. But we have Elisa Ivannov, who is now the keeper of Toulon's Trunk of Puppets, working with Blade. They seem to have a nice back and forth in a sense. Elisa is now a journalist and is investigating random series of murders. This leads them to an off shoot of Nazis still trying to take over the world. 

Honestly, this a solid simple story. It knows what it's trying to do. The fact that there is only Blade helps it immensely. It allows us to focus as well as being practical.  The downsides of the Axis Trilogy is the Puppets, unfortunately because of the crunch of production time. The way things are handled here was super solid. It easily allows this to surpass the trilogy and probably rank a bit high for me. One or the interesting things is that this was a film shot in 4 Days. That's something that is extremely commendable. 

The cast all deliver relatively solid performances. Tania Fox does a good job and that's huge considering it's kinda all riding on her shoulders. Vincent Cusimano is great as the Detective. He is exactly what you imagine when you think of 1940s detective. And the villains are a bit cheesy. But isn't that the point? 

I honestly could go into more. But this is a successful spin-off, in my opinion. It gives you what you'd like to see. Could there be more Blade? Yes. However, they do a good job with what we have. There is also some fantastic callbacks. There is a mention of Dr. Hess. For those that know, it's cool knowing that Hess inhabits Blade. So it adds a layer of a redemption story to it. I'm now at the point where I'm looking forward to Doctor Death, as that gets to explore modern day. This is a film that has me hyped again for this franchise. 

Rating: 4 out of 5. (Doesn't overstay its welcome.)

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