Plot: An employee undergoes involuntary robotic transformation, programmed as a killing machine that must destroy anything in proximity due to the company’s secret weapons project.
RoboCop is an all-time classic sci-fi action movie as we all know however, what some may not know is that the year before it was released there was another movie with a similar storyline – The Vindicator. It doesn’t have the same budget or performances as RoboCop but The Vindicator is elevated by some awesome make-up effects courtesy of Stan Winston and it isn’t short on explosions and vengeance.
The Vindicator stars David McIlwraith as Carl Lehman, an employee at a tech laboratory who finds out too much about his frankly insane boss Alex (Richard Cox). Carl has an “accident” which kills him however, with some new technology Alex and his ghoulish crew bring Carl back to life as a cyborg killing machine. Of course, it doesn’t take long for Carl to realise who he really was and wreak havoc upon the people who left him for dead.
Carl’s cyborg form is still awesome looking and I liked his voice too; the way he communicates with his wife through the synthesizer was original and could have been more moving if it had better writing. I never really cared about any of the characters but I knew Alex was a monster straight away. His first scene has him testing a chimp until it goes crazy and dies, so from that moment on he needed to be destroyed.
The Vindicator is a quick 90 minutes and is never dull; the late Maury Chaykin shines as Carl’s treacherous friend Burt and he was always so good at playing these kinds of roles. He could always play “off” so easily. The highlight is Pam Grier as Hunter in one of her best villainous roles.
The score is synth heavy and not that memorable, but does the job especially during the opening credits.
On the action front there are frequent explosions and the final fight between Carl and Alex is satisfying with Alex getting exactly what he deserves.
Overall, The Vindicator is an easy watch and the similarities with RoboCop are hard to ignore, but it’s still an entertaining dead guy out for revenge movie with an enjoyable performance from Pam Grier in villain mode.