Expected more

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Crappy film

A Masterpiece!

In 1973, British director Kevin Connor made the tidy and undervalued horror film, From Beyond the Grave with Peter Cushing. But it was the film that he made in 1975 that would signal the start of four Z grade creature features that would make him known to the discerning creature feature fan. That film was The Land That Time Forgot, where he was paired with American beefcake actor Doug McClure, and the marker that culminated with Warlords of Atlantis in 1978 was well and truly set.Here with this, in terms of fun arguably the second best film of the four after At The Earths Core, Connor and screenplay writer Brian Hayles send McClure, Peter Gilmore and a few rough neck sailor types under the ocean, to where the lost cities of Atlantis be. All of which is a plot perfectly designed to create monster mayhem and meetings with an unknown race that speak perfect English! Into the fray comes giant octopus, various reptilian sea monsters, The Mogdaan, Zaargs and an attack by flying piranha critters. Sure the effects are up and down, even shoddy and befitting the Z grade budget, but oh what fun it is.The cast also contains John Ratzenberger, who would go on to be a household name playing Cliff Clavin in the long running show, Cheers. Another notable name on the cast list is Cyd Charisse who earlier in her career had appeared in Singing In The Rain and Brigadoon. But it's McClure who is always the main attraction in these pictures. Obviously brought in to keep the American audience in mind, it's somewhat inspiring watching Dougie manfully work thru the movie as if it's a masterpiece of the genre. That none of the Connor/McClure collaborations are genre high points is irrelevant, no amount of dopey effects and string assisted creatures can detract from the fact that ridiculous can sometimes be hugely entertaining. And that is exactly what Warlords Of Atlantis is. Now, where did I put my jar of pickles ? 7/10

one word to describe this movie: mediocre. sort of mad max (see the prisoners and the atlantean first cities ) meets sinbad (SFX would still be poor if dated 20 years earlier ) meets cable TV tripe, like those "lost/treasure island" short telepictures from the 1960-70s for a young audience. Acting is mediocre-to-poor. When gummy faced Mcclure plays the hot dud to impress the mad max belle, well...how corny can anything get? A superior race of martians defends itself using XIX century rifles and cannons? Do me a favor...lock the screenplay writer in a padded cell. They also try to add the victorian element, so well done and fitting in the earlier Dracula movies, yet with poor results here. All in all, rather than a real movie (yes, low budget and all ), it looked like an extended episode from some cable TV "adventure" series. They even try to add plot twists, but it gets even more laughable. Pathetic main actors; even ridiculous supporting cast. Perhaps Lea Brodie is the less pathetic one. Yes, you get monsters, but the Japanese ones decades older were much better. This tripe makes Harryhausen's SFX - a craftsman in his own right albeit very dated - look better than Matrix, Terminator II and Jurassic Park stitched together. Gummy faced Mcclure makes Arnold look like Laurence Olivier, and Gilmore makes Keanu Reeves better than Al Pacino, go figure.

"Warlords" tells the tale of 2 scientist's (father and son), a captain, a crew of questionable deck hands, a young boy and our hero Greg, aka Doug McClure who are out to discover the lost city of Atlantis with a revolutionary diving device Greg has created that is bottomless. Along the way however some things go bad and the crew are attacked by several creatures including a giant octopus as well as the occupants of Atlantis. The Atlantians capture them and an escape attempt is made by our crew to get out of Atlantis before they are "altered" to live there forever.If you are a fan of rubber suits and puppets as oppose to the modern day CGI you are in for a treat as this film deliveries many different beasties made of the Godzilla style persuasion. After saying that if you are not one to be into that kind of effects then you will not really like what this movie has in store for you. For me I liked them and thought it added a certain charm that you cannot get with a movie made nowadays.The story is basic and there is really nothing here that is awe inspiring or revolutionary but as far as a PG rated adventure goes (the first I've actually entered a review on I believe) this one is a nice little ride. If you have little ones they will more than likely be entertained by all the monsters and more than likely your inner child will enjoy them as well.No gore here, nothing horrific just a nice little escape along the lines of a descent Fantasy or Sci-Fi film. People looking for anything else than a 70's style low budget adventure film need not apply all others I would encourage you to give it a look. My score for "Warlords of Atlantis" is: 5/10: Average, a nice little escape nothing huge here, just a nice change of pace film to show off to the kids that will not make you want to rip out your eyes.This movie has not yet received a Stateside release however for a little "pound" you can get this one from England, courtesy of the DVD company Cinema Club. It is a 16:9 Animorphic transfer with an English Mono only audio.

I think this is a great movie, well paced, good special effects considering the budget restraints and a novel idea, of an alien race seeking to build a dictatorship state with which to enslave the world. Another charming aspect I liked about the film is that it doesn't take itself to seriously and I love the scene of the monsters attacking the city. Great puppetry! Also as its good to see Peter Gilmore in a different role other than James Onedin side be side with Trampas Doug Mclure. Strange bed fellows indeed. Never realised that it was Kevin Connor - he directed land that time forgot, that directed this movie until much later. Probably explains why I liked Warlords in the first place.