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The Leprechaun is back, but this time he’s in the future and in space. His plans of becoming a King of some planet we’ve never heard of are put on hold though when his queen-to-be is rescued by some space marines.
There a lot of allusions to other sci-fi movies. Early on the Leprechaun kills someone using a weapon that looks a lot like a green light saber, which was obviously a nod to Star Wars. As well, the Leprechaun busts out of a guy’s crotch in such a way that the viewer can’t help but think of a similar scene in the classic sci-fi movie Alien. Of course both scenes I’ve mentioned are played up for comedy value and I have to say that I found the Leprechaun coming out of the guy’s crotch amusing. However, I think the scene could have been a lot gorier or more over the top than what we got.
Like in the previous movies, the Leprechaun has a lot of silly one-liners and jokes. His relationship with the Princess Zarina is fun to watch as it deteriorates from to not only the Leprechaun planning on killing his wife-to-be after they’re married, but also to the Princess planning to kill the Leprechaun once she’s done using him to gain power on her home world.
This movie really is over top in a good kind of way. However, I think it should have been more fun than what it was. There are times when I thought the movie took itself too seriously and started to get boring. For example, the love story between Doctor Reeves and the marine Brooks is not very interesting and it felt totally out of place in the movie. There isn’t really a whole lot of gore in Leprechaun 4. As well, the special effects are quite bad in some spots. The space ships looked like something out of a video game from the late 1990’s. I also don’t understand why the Leprechaun needed to use a gun in some of the scenes he was in. Was this movie so low budget that they couldn’t afford some cool effects to show the Leprechauns’ evil magic? Here’s a question that deserves an answer: why is there a disco on the ship? They call it an entertainment lounge in the movie, but it looks like a cheap disco someone made up in their garage. This is only one of many examples of the weak plot that bogs down this movie. Here’s another question: why does the Leprechaun want to rule some planet we’ve never heard of? Wouldn’t it have more sense if he was trying to take over earth? At least then we might actually give a crap about his dastardly plan. Couldn’t he have just used his magic to retrieve his wife-to-be and been on his way without killing the marines on the ship? At least in the other movies he was chasing his gold, so he had somewhat of a reason for killing the people he was encountering. In Leprechaun 4 it seems like he’s just killing people so the movie wouldn’t be too short. I can’t think of another word to describe the plot other than wonky. Most of the characters are marines, but they’re working for a scientist, Doctor Mittenhand, who is paying them. Wouldn’t that make them mercenaries? How is it that Mittenhand can threaten them with a court martial if they don’t obey his orders? Is this scientist the head of the military? I know he’s portrayed as brilliant, but why would a scientist be the head of the military?
My biggest problem with this movie is that it was a total letdown. Even as I write this I find myself feeling more and more disappointed with Leprechaun 4. After the humor in Leprechaun 3, I was expecting this to be B-movie gold, but the more I think about it, the more I realize what a terrible movie Leprechaun in Space is. The makers of this movie tried to make it interesting when you think about the wacky cast of characters that included a cyborg marine and Doctor Mittenhand, who is just a head and an arm attached to a machine. However, the biggest problem with Leprechaun 4 is the budget. They obviously didn’t have the money to make this movie right, so we ended up with boring settings and terrible special effects.
I can’t recommend Leprechaun 4 to anyone. Fans of the series might find something in it to like, but they aren’t missing anything if they’ve never seen it. More than likely this movie won’t turn anyone into a Leprechaun fan either, so don’t waste your time on Leprechaun in Space.
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