Every so often when a film or series of films grabs the public’s attention, there are a number of other films that use that familiarity to gain sales. Porn parodies are the most consistent offenders here, but also films like Advocates Devil instead of Devil’s Advocate, Age Of The Hobbits and Transmorphers are also good examples. It is this history of ‘mockbusters’ that came to mind when I heard about Avengers Grimm.
Unsurprisingly, Avengers Grimm, a clear play on the Marvel franchise combined with the current trend of fairytale adaptations, is from The Asylum Films, one of the biggest producers of ‘mockbusters’. With that heritage, you could be worried about what you may be getting.
With Once Upon A Time and Grimm on our TV screens, as well as Into The Woods at the cinema, the last few years have seen very similar fairytale ‘mashups’ being played out with varying amounts of success. To their credit, Once Upon A Time and Grimm tackle the material with different sensibilities and both are worthy, successful additions, but through those series many of the ideas have been explored. So, Avengers Grimm feels very much a derivative work at this stage.
The Asylum does put out some interesting things though, such as the inexplicably entertaining Sharknado, and although the name has been calculatedly chosen (The ‘Grimm Avengers’ is obviously a better name), suggesting a cheap cash in, there may be merit here.
The plot, what there is of it, concerns a marauding ‘Rumpelstiltskin’ (Casper Van Dien) using the magic mirror to escape to our world so that he can rule like a king in a ‘world without magic’. Trying to stop him is ‘Snow White’ (Lauren Parkinson), who in the ensuing struggle is pulled through into our world with him. In pursuit are three princesses, ‘Rapunzel’ (Rileah Vanderbilt), ‘Cinderella’ (Milynn Sarley) and ‘Sleeping Beauty’ (Marah Fairclough), as well as ‘Red Riding Hood’ (Elizabeth Peterson). Once in our world, they must work to save the day and defeat Rumpelstiltskin and his allies ‘Iron John’ (Lou Ferrigno) & ‘The Wolf’ (Kimo Leopoldo).
The first thing that you will notice is that some of the performances aren’t of the strongest calibre and that the quality is all over the show. This may be in part due to the weak script, which doesn’t help any of the actors with its wafer-thin dialogue or poor characterisation. Casper Van Dien does well, but I couldn’t help but think of Robert Carlyle’s superior ‘Rumpelstiltskin’ in Once Upon A Time. Elizabeth Peterson outshines everyone else. It must also be noted that Lou Ferrigno (The Incredible Hulk) does a credible job, bringing in one of the more developed performances.
An interesting sidenote is that two of the princesses are played by genre/scene favourites Rileah Vanderbilt and Milynn Sarley, of ‘Team Unicorn’, who people may also know from The Guild or Saber. I did wonder going into this, having enjoyed their previous work, whether I would be disappointed or not with their role in a feature. Luckily, they hold their own, getting into the spirit of the piece.
As an Asylum film, this has a relatively small budget, but it is effectively shot, with better CGI than you would expect, and it looks much more than its budget would suggest. There are also some very good fight sequences, with Peterson and Sarley especially deserving credit (along with stunt doubles, no doubt) for the L.A. River section. Jeremy M. Inman, who both wrote and directed Avengers Grimm has delivered more than I thought he would. His previous experience on Sharknado et al has obviously helped.
Really, to be fair to this film, you have to view it as a tongue in cheek B-movie, and it is not to be taken too seriously. As a fan of Troma films over the years, I can appreciate something that is created for the sheer fun of it, giving some latitude for flimsy plotting or poor characters. In this light, Avengers Grimm is more entertaining and can pleasantly while away 90 minutes, but if you view it in a more critical light, it will soon start to fall apart. There are things to enjoy here though, so if you approach it in the knowledge that it’s a ‘mockbuster’ B-movie, you will have a much better time.
