Iron Invader is set in the small town of Redeemer in Idaho & starts as two brother's Jake (Kavan Smith) & Ethan Hampton (Colby Johannson) witness a ball of fire fall from the sky & land on farm-ground nearby, they set out to investigate what it was & find a crashed Russian satellite. Jake & Ethan decide to collect the smashed up pieces & sell to the local scrap metal yard run by Earl (Donnelly Rhodes) who gives them $800 for it. Unknown to everyone is that the metal is covered in an alien bacteria that is able to control it, Earl has been putting the finishing touches to a huge twenty foot statue made from bits of scrap metal which the alien bacteria is drawn to & once it infects the statue it brings it to life. Making it's way through town & killing anyone it comes across to feed on the high levels of metal content in our blood a handful of survivors must defeat the alien bacteria before it spreads even further...
Also known under the title Metal Shifters this American & Canadian co-production was co-written & directed by Paul Ziller who seems to specialize in these low budget sci-fi fantasy horror productions (Swarmed (2005), Solar Strike (2006), Beyond Loch Ness (2008), Yeti: Curse of the Snow Demon (2008), Polar Storm (2009), Stonehenge Apocalypse (2010) & Ice Quake (2010) to name but a few) & to be fair to Iron Invaders it wasn't as bad as I expected, I'm not saying it's great, far from it, but I didn't completely hate it. The main reason I had a bit more liking for Iron Invadrs than the average Sy-Fy Channel film was that it didn't feature any giant animals, snakes, insects, spiders or fish. There were no Government scientists trying to create then ultimate military weapon & no genetic experiments gone wrong. In fact the idea of an alien bacteria that lives off metal & has the power to bring inanimate metal to life is quite cool, the huge robot statue that Earl has made is a little convenient I suppose but once it comes to life & starts stomping around town finding people to feed off the metal extracts in their blood it's quite fun in a bad sort of way. Iron Invaders is no masterpiece, I am pretty certain it was never meant to be & that iron Invaders was made with the sole intention of being a fun 90 odd minutes which, in fairness, it is. I've certainly seen worse that's for sure. The character's are broad clichés, the all American hero, the romantic love interest, a cowardly one, a family member or two to put in jeopardy, bit part character's who are killed off & swiftly forgotten about with any real emotion (including brothers & sisters) & the usual incompetent police but the thing moves along at a decent pace & is never that boring. At about the hour mark the huge statue is blown up & then the little pieces come after the survivors who are hiding in the local bar & Iron Invaders goes from a big monster film to an isolated base under threat type siege horror film so there's even a bit of variety here although none of it is exactly brilliant. It's passable & watchable sci-fi entertainment that is better than a lot of stuff out there but that in itself isn't saying that much, is it?
Again, surprisingly, the CGI computer effects aren't actually that bad here. Alright so they aren't great or anything but they are adequate, I suppose a giant metal robot is meant to look stiff & awkward anyway that helps a bit & the crashing satellite at the start looks OK too. Imagine the T-800 from The Terminator films only twenty feet high & you get an idea of what they huge robot statue thing looks like. Quite well made for this type of thing Iron Invaders is a fairly competent production even if that alcohol they pour on the burning metal parts would have added fuel to the fire (alcohol is highly flammable you know...) & made it fiercer rather than put it out.
Filmed in British Columbia in Canada this probably had a pretty low budget, the entire town consists of one street & about seven people. I've heard of small rural towns but that's just ridiculous. The acting is OK< no-one really seems to put much effort in but no-one stands out as being particularly annoying or awful I suppose.
Iron Invaders, or Metal Shifters as I saw it as, is a passable Sy-Fy Channel film that is maybe slightly more original & slightly more polished than the average Sy-Fy Channel output. Sure it's no masterpiece but if you have sufficiently low expectations Iron Invaders will probably live up to them, just about. Nowhere near the worst film I have seen on the Sy-Fy Channel.
Also known under the title Metal Shifters this American & Canadian co-production was co-written & directed by Paul Ziller who seems to specialize in these low budget sci-fi fantasy horror productions (Swarmed (2005), Solar Strike (2006), Beyond Loch Ness (2008), Yeti: Curse of the Snow Demon (2008), Polar Storm (2009), Stonehenge Apocalypse (2010) & Ice Quake (2010) to name but a few) & to be fair to Iron Invaders it wasn't as bad as I expected, I'm not saying it's great, far from it, but I didn't completely hate it. The main reason I had a bit more liking for Iron Invadrs than the average Sy-Fy Channel film was that it didn't feature any giant animals, snakes, insects, spiders or fish. There were no Government scientists trying to create then ultimate military weapon & no genetic experiments gone wrong. In fact the idea of an alien bacteria that lives off metal & has the power to bring inanimate metal to life is quite cool, the huge robot statue that Earl has made is a little convenient I suppose but once it comes to life & starts stomping around town finding people to feed off the metal extracts in their blood it's quite fun in a bad sort of way. Iron Invaders is no masterpiece, I am pretty certain it was never meant to be & that iron Invaders was made with the sole intention of being a fun 90 odd minutes which, in fairness, it is. I've certainly seen worse that's for sure. The character's are broad clichés, the all American hero, the romantic love interest, a cowardly one, a family member or two to put in jeopardy, bit part character's who are killed off & swiftly forgotten about with any real emotion (including brothers & sisters) & the usual incompetent police but the thing moves along at a decent pace & is never that boring. At about the hour mark the huge statue is blown up & then the little pieces come after the survivors who are hiding in the local bar & Iron Invaders goes from a big monster film to an isolated base under threat type siege horror film so there's even a bit of variety here although none of it is exactly brilliant. It's passable & watchable sci-fi entertainment that is better than a lot of stuff out there but that in itself isn't saying that much, is it?
Again, surprisingly, the CGI computer effects aren't actually that bad here. Alright so they aren't great or anything but they are adequate, I suppose a giant metal robot is meant to look stiff & awkward anyway that helps a bit & the crashing satellite at the start looks OK too. Imagine the T-800 from The Terminator films only twenty feet high & you get an idea of what they huge robot statue thing looks like. Quite well made for this type of thing Iron Invaders is a fairly competent production even if that alcohol they pour on the burning metal parts would have added fuel to the fire (alcohol is highly flammable you know...) & made it fiercer rather than put it out.
Filmed in British Columbia in Canada this probably had a pretty low budget, the entire town consists of one street & about seven people. I've heard of small rural towns but that's just ridiculous. The acting is OK< no-one really seems to put much effort in but no-one stands out as being particularly annoying or awful I suppose.
Iron Invaders, or Metal Shifters as I saw it as, is a passable Sy-Fy Channel film that is maybe slightly more original & slightly more polished than the average Sy-Fy Channel output. Sure it's no masterpiece but if you have sufficiently low expectations Iron Invaders will probably live up to them, just about. Nowhere near the worst film I have seen on the Sy-Fy Channel.