n the near future, in California, a platoon of heavily-armed, black-garbed troopers arrive on the scene of a bloodbath: a super soldier, made from the fusion of man and machine, has gone berserk, slaughtering patrons of a diner. When they find him, he’s mindlessly punching holes in the wall of the bathroom, with the lone female survivor cowering in the corner. Shortly thereafter, Chaank Armaments is in hot water for their involvement in such controversial programs, allegedly involving experiments with direct cerebral downloading into human brains – known as the Hard Man Project.

The corporation’s public relations are deteriorating, so it’s up to new joint chief executive Hayden Cale (Ely Pouget) to turn things around. But fellow executive Scott Ridley (Richard Brake) isn’t keen on stopping their potentially lucrative endeavors. And the top programmer, Jack Dante (Brad Dourif), seems to hold sway over everyone in the company, despite the fact that he’s a voyeuristic, immature, cartoon-loving, porn-consuming, computer-hacking loner who has no respect for authority figures or the general rules of society. He may be a basement-dwelling weirdo, but his ability to acquire information causes his coworkers – all the way up the ladder – to fear him. When he speaks of a deadly weapon that he’s been working on in a secret vault, it’s an even greater reason for Cale to be concerned for Chaank’s future, as well as for her own safety.

“I showed him my thing, and it killed him.” The basic setup leads to the unveiling of a metal monstrosity that hunts down and destroys Dante’s enemies. And the beast is governed by a neuro-synaptic remote relay controller, which is basically a handheld radio (not unlike the detonator in the subway climax in “Speed”). The Chaank facility becomes an amusing playground for mayhem and destruction, though there aren’t enough bodies for the mechanical killer to consume – until a team of humanitarian terrorists show up, plotting to steal billions of dollars in master software bonds, stored deep within the building in a containment catacomb. Later on, a rip-off of “Universal Soldier” makes its way into the picture, along with a take on “Robocop,” a bad one-liner from “The Terminator,” and one of those typical sequences in which an implanted tracking device must be cut out with a knife.

The warbeast’s viewpoint is presented as if a video game, which is suitable considering that the story essentially pits soldiers against an obscured evil entity; the antihero protagonists must find a way out of the labyrinthine headquarters, not unlike survival horror games. And for Dante, it is indeed all a game, which he narrates via monitors, offering up negotiations and taunts. Writer/director Stephen Norrington doesn’t take things too seriously, not only with the dialogue (which is full of pitiful catchphrases) but also with the character names, which include Weyland, Yutani, Sam Raimi, and John Carpenter. And the acting, which is mostly overblown (and routinely amateurish) or simply bouts of yelling, fits with the sci-fi silliness. Quite unexpectedly, there are total comic relief moments thrown in as well, which are extremely unnecessary. “Holy donuts!”

The film is intermittently bloody and suspenseful, yet the action is edited with so many cuts and fast-paced camera angle changes that it’s impossible to see what exactly is going on. This is purposeful, to hide the deficiencies in the monster design, but it’s also annoying, since most of the attacks take place in plenty of light. The cinematography is proficient enough to make “Death Machine” look like a movie (as opposed to a television special), even utilizing some impressive sequences in the rain, but the pacing and scripting are dull enough to transform this two-hour slasher into a clunky, tedious affair. If only the budget for the warbeast puppeteering had been greater. But at least viewers get to see a young Rachel Weisz in a one-sentence bit part.

– Mike Massie