In “Legacy”, we find Peter Hertz, the boy who as child during World War II was helped by Andre Toulon and escaped with him from Nazi Germany. Now, named Eric Weiss, in the present, he has finally discovered the fate of his friend after many years of lost contact. In the Bodega Bay hotel he found Toulon’s notes and his beloved Puppets, but he was found by a mysterious woman named Maclain hired to find the Puppets and Toulon’s secret.
The movie follows a discussion between the two of them, remembering Toulon and his actions since he learned the secret of life, until his death and rebirth. While Weiss remembers Toulon as a great man whose life was destroyed by the Nazis, Maclain knows him as a mad psycho who enslaved the puppets.
You know when a t.v. series has been on for a while and you get those episodes showing past footage from previous episodes, well that’s what we get here. So much of it in fact that we only get about 30 minutes of new footage, which in movie terms isn’t a-lot. Whilst those 30 minutes are decent and well acted you still can’t help but feel a little ripped off.
When I first watched this film I was very confused, I thought I had put the wrong film in, it was only further on I realized what was going on. The movie works very well in terms of giving sense to the storyline, trying to fix the enormous plot holes the series had. To do this, the movie uses clips from all the Puppet Master movies, although this has to do more with the fact that it had almost no budget than with a creative decision.
To follow up “Retro Puppet Master” with another story telling film wasn’t exactly the greatest idea but everyone like’s a good story, and Toulon’s story is a great one. If you’re this far into the series you’ll know the score by know, ideas were short and so was the budget. Truth is you can only do so much with killer puppets before it starts becoming stale and I give props to Full Moon for this, yes, like I said, it wasn’t the idea but it’s better than trying to do another story about the puppets being found by a new Puppet Master again.
Also the fact it tries to fill the plot holes we were left with from previous entries is good, if it’s one thing a-lot of movie fans hate is plot holes. BUT as a fan, watching the movie was kind of sad, because it was very obvious that this was a desperate attempt to fix a series that has been badly damaged over the years; nevertheless, the effort is very appreciated, because it finally gives a fitting conclusion to Full Moon’s best selling movies.
30 minutes and clips of previous movies is not my idea of a good movie, but this movie is definitely a must see for every fan of the Puppet Master series.
