After the last few movies in the Puppet Master franchise, this movie goes back to the beginning and takes place right after the moment that Toulon kills himself in the very first film to keep the Nazis from gaining the knowledge to his formula. It was almost as if Charles Band realized that he had strayed too far off course from where the films started and decided to right the ship before all was lost. So with Axis of Evil, it is a return to form as the movie features an actual story and plot that makes sense and finds the puppets in action with a new master once again.

As stated, the movie picks up during events of the first and it sees young American dreamer Danny, played by Levi Fiehler, unable to fight in the war for his country due to his bum leg. So it is that he has made a career for himself as a woodworker and looks to learn from Toulon when he finds himself dragged into a plot involving Nazi spies. He discovers the hiding place of the puppets and takes possession of them and circumstances soon find our hero animating the dolls with Toulon’s formula, creating a ninja puppet aptly named Ninja and putting a stop to said Nazis, particularly the man who he thinks killed Toulon and is moving in on his girlfriend.

Surprisingly, the story is not all that bad and there is some suspense and intrigue to keep the  tale moving along at a decent pace. The acting still leaves a lot to be desired as well as the script, the performances sometimes being a little wooden and the dialogue silly. Fiehler is guilty of most of it, he being the main attraction as it were and it is sometimes just a little painful to watch. The fact of the matter is, if you were going to watch this movie you are not watching it for any of the actors involved, you are watching it for the puppets – to see what they do, who they might kill and if any new ones might be introduced, of which there is in Ninja. Ninja might not be the most original of puppets, and kind of strange to think that Toulon would create one with such a theme during the height of World War II even though a few of his puppets look like little Nazis, but such as it is, Ninja is actually not all that bad.

Axis of Evil, the ninth picture to fall under the Puppet Master banner is one of the better ones to be had. There are no demons to be had, no strange totems or devils or magical beings, rituals or spells. The only thing out of the ordinary is the same thing you will see in all of the Puppet Master movies and the reason why they have endured so long – murderous yet somehow, lovable puppets.

3 out of 5