What's So Great About INFRAMAN

Hi. I thought I'd review an overlooked gem amoung the vast geek "Sea of Stars". For me, one of the most badass underrated movies from the 70s is this kung-fu superhero sensation!

Inframan(or "Super Inframan")was a live-action film put out in 1975 by the Gods of Kung-Fu cinema, the Shaw Brothers! It was an original movie not based on an anime/manga, but largely inspired by tokusatsu shows, mainly Kamen Rider. It even features music from Japanese shows like Ultra Seven. Quite a few of the martial artists in it were coming out of the Bruceploitation era of the early 70s, but there's some genuinely good fights in this, superhero-style!

The movie is about an evil dragon creature called Princess Dragon Mom(love that name!)who can take on the form of a sexy blonde, and she raises her army of kaiju rejects and gang of Ghost Rider clones to try and take over the world. The brilliant scientist Professor Chang decides to counter this invasion by creating a bionic man, so officer Rayma from the Science Patrol(no relation to the Ultraman one)volunteers to get the Robocop treatment. Rayma becomes Inframan, who can transform into robotic hero with super-strength, super-hearing, lasers, mini-missles, jetboot kicks, rocket punches, and energy blades. His coolest power is turning into a giant and squishing one of the monsters like a roach! In the end, Inframan has to rescue the Prof. and his whiny daughter from Dragon Mom's lair in a kickass scene where all the Science Patrol dressed in Evel Knievel battling the Ghost Riders.

WHAT'S SO GREAT ABOUT IT?

There is some killer fight scenes in this, and all done in glorious "wha-ta-ta-ta-ta"! The campy flavor of the 70s is in full swing too with corny dialogue and goofy-looking monsters. The English dub is unintentionally hilarious, and totally worth watching over the original Chinese language. The Shaw Bros. brought all their greatness to this with some of the best sentai action ever. This movie is a primo candidiate for your next MST3K session!