Moontrap (1989)

Directed by Robert Dyke. Starring Walter Koenig, Bruce Campbell, Robert Kurcz, Leigh Lombardi, John J. Saunders, Reavir Graham, Tom Case. [R]

A space shuttle encounters an ancient, seemingly-abandoned spaceship in Earth’s orbit and the astronauts bring back what looks like a large, misshapen football. But, nope, it’s a cyborg alien pod that runs amok, inspiring the same astronauts to rush off to the moon on a search-and-destroy mission (“Yeeeehaaww!”). Decent sci-fi programmer is never quite gripping despite a few suspenseful moments, coasts pretty far on the goodwill of its primary actors and some evocative moon surface shots. Although the filmmakers sometimes stretch the dollar in creative ways, budget limitations hinder the action scenes and the cybernetic enemy’s threat level (not to mention the consistency of their fortitude, as it takes forever to destroy the one on Earth but the ones on the moon fall to pieces with just a few well-placed gun blasts). Fans of the genre will be more forgiving of Tex Ragsdale’s derivative script, but it’s a treat to hear lead astronaut Koenig speak of “the final frontier” in his log. Followed by a sequel almost thirty years later with most of the same filmmakers, different cast.

53/100