Actium Maximus will be my first review because it's the film that led me to IMDb to begin with... I found this movie so uniquely bizarre that I was curious to see other's thoughts, and kept coming back to IMDb ever since. Reviews I've read here and on various blogs have led to many a belly-laugh, even if their words were cruel and at the expense of a movie that I happen to like a lot! Consider the title of one of the other reviews here: "This Movie Is Distilled Pain"! It cracks me up every time- it's funny how the negative reviews often contain plenty of humor while the good reviews rarely do. However, another reviewer also gets props for acknowledging that there are in fact people out there who can totally dig a film like this... I am one of those people and finally made an account at IMDb in part to defend 'Actium Maximus'!First let me say that I fully understand the faults people list with this movie: The spoiler is that there is no spoiler- you watch the entire film to get a sudden "To be continued..." What?? Why wasn't I warned on the box that there's no ending! Then there is no plot beyond the basic setup: On a planet in some galaxy a box-thing rules with an iron fist and the populace is kept distracted with fights involving different races of "dinosaurs". Creatures called Laffrodites protest and wage guerrilla wars against the dictator. That's pretty much it. Another clear fault here is that there is no protagonist- the main character (played by writer/director Mark Hicks) Jaciniun Axcesun- the only human character in the film besides his female assistant Pratalls- is just a lackey for the Grand Automaton. The only good guys, the oppressed Laffrodites, are just ginseng roots that don't speak... even if there were scenes with rebel leader Arch Briton Sustinuce, he has no face or voice so we would not really be able to relate to him beyond his plight. Then there are the effects which come off as a mix of low budget effects from the 60's, 70's, 80's, and 90's when they are in fact from the 2000's! Finally a critical flaw: The dinosaurs never fight! They walk around or bob up and down with gore in their mouths, but we never actually see the action PROMISED IN THE MOVIE'S TITLE! Those are probably the main ailments here. Ah, let's not forget that when Jaciniun visits the "dinosaur holding pens" you can actually see monkeys swinging on poles in the background and realize they shot this scene at the zoo!The good: Honestly this is not a film I would ever put on with some guests to watch during prime time, unless it's just one other person and you've both been smoking the wacky to- baccy. I have probably watched Actium Maximus a hundred times, but this is usually in the wee hours alone and I have definitely not seen the ending as many times as the beginning, as I usually doze off before then. And that's the point here: This movie is dream-like... honestly, besides the first Star Wars film and T.V.'s Land of the Lost (the 70's one) there are not all that many movies that make me feel like I am really somewhere else- a place outside of this reality. Actium Maximus achieves that in my opinion, which as the above-mentioned reviewer pointed out is really enjoyed by a small group of people out there. Jaciniun's spaceship, the weird creatures that he talks to at the holding pens, the asymmetrical yellow and lavender "dinosaur"- these are some of several elements here that come off as very otherworldly and not like the endless generic stuff coming out of Hollywood. I think the guy doing the expository voice-over at the beginning does a brilliant job of sounding totally comfortable with the completely bizarre script he is reading and makes it all the more believable. I also like the "dinosaur" names like Belatonus, Titanodon, Dhezeron, Lexiagon, Retarisaurus, etc. and the fact that they are shipped in from different planets.Lastly I will mention the soundtrack, which I have seen people complement even after tearing the film itself apart- I think the score is catchy and adds to the film's atmosphere. There's a synth and piano theme repeated throughout the film which has an epic rock opera sort of feel. then we get sort of Ministry type industrial metal, and then there's plenty of 80's guitar metal shredding with an accompanying piano! Hopefully Mark gets a little satisfaction seeing that a lot of people like his music even if they didn't like the movie.So there you go- most people will surely find Actium Maximus un-watchable, but I'll take this over the generic cgi sh*t-show that comes out of Hollywood any day. Movies are art, and the conventional faults listed in the first part of the review are irrelevant for those who can appreciate this kind of otherworldly weirdness. You know who you are...

Alright, now, I have no idea if this was done as a deliberate comedy, a self-aware, tongue-in-cheek spoof of low budget sci-fi flicks, or if they were really trying to be serious here and just failed spectacularly, but Actium Maximus, this hideous, shrieking beast of a movie, is hard on the viewers' eyes and ears regardless of the filmmakers' intentions.My biggest gripe with the movie was *by far* the audio. I had an absurdly difficult time understanding the dialogue (unless it was subtitled, which it mercifully was in many scenes), because the robotic/futuristic distortion effects that were used for most of the alien voices rendered their speech almost completely unintelligible, not to mention an irritating chore to listen to. Tragically, most of the (painfully jargon-infested) dialogue in this movie is expositional and pretty much essential to understanding the story and the setting, so not being able to discern what's being said definitely is a problem. Or maybe not, considering that ---spoiler ahead--- *none* of the established conflicts and crises are actually resolved in any way whatsoever. Instead, the viewer is given the middle finger in the form of a "To Be Continued..." message after over an hour worth of nothing but buildup. Delicious.Of course, the other major issue are the visuals. I have absolutely nothing against "bad", low budget special effects in general, nor do I reject movies that deliberately opt for a cheap look, whether for comedic effect or just for style, but this disaster is where I have to draw the line. The effects in Actium Maximus are bad to the point of being a severe distraction and hindrance to the plot. After a while, I was no longer just sitting there, watching a movie, but actually squinting at the screen, guessing the contents of conversations and hoping to figure out what the hell the makers where trying to convey with the confusing, chaotic imagery.All in all, Actium Maximus is a nasty, messy and overall grating ordeal. It gets a 2 only for some of its genuinely impressive set miniatures, and the somewhat admirable guts the producers must have had for even attempting an ambitious project like this on such a damningly tight budget.

With an intricate story mythology not seen since The Dark Crystal, Mark Hicks' Actium Maximus: War of the Alien Dinosaurs is an ambitious and truly independent sci-fi fantasy film ideal for genre fans, featuring some truly inventive animated special effects.Turmoil rages in the colony of Actium, as assassination attempts, glitter riots and economic collapse all threaten to destroy the colony's fragile government. The maniacal dictator of the planet, Grand-Automaton Polpox, ignores the looming crisis by indulging in the Actium Maximus Karnivale, a gruesome competition where alien dinosaurs fight to the death, much to the delight of the ignorant citizens. Meanwhile, space hunter Omni-Turor Axezun is sent by the Grand Automaton to the farthest ends of the universe on a mission to retrieve additional creatures for the Karnivale. Axezun and his band of poachers find an ancient crashed spaceship, which may be the remains of a dead god. Inside the bowels of the wreckage, they find an ancient riddle that will change life throughout the galaxy forever!

I haven't commented on this site in a while but I just had to when I saw all the negativity aimed at this great film. I'm not going to pretend that this film is "good" in a conventional sense. And it takes a very, very small and very particular percentage of the world to truly appreciate what's going on here. I used to seek out "so-bad-they're-good" films when I was younger but I kept seeing films that were INTENTIONALLY bad, and that just didn't cut it for me. What makes this film so great is that it's all so SERIOUS! And, in all seriousness, you can tell that the director put a lot of effort, time, and money into this. It is very cheaply-made, but it still does actually have plenty of special effects and decently-constructed monsters. This film was actually filmed as a pilot to a TV series that never got made, and actually this film was incomplete as well, so the fact that this actually got released in the first place is quite remarkable, but I'm glad it did. And it is REALLY hilarious and entertaining from beginning to end, despite what other people on here might tell you. It's not conventionally "GOOD", and its not recommended unless you like this crap -- but for fans of the worst acting and special effects ever, this is gold. Let me repeat: You have never seen special effects this bad, a plot more nonsensical, a film more horrible (though well-intentioned). In my eyes, that makes it extremely special.Star Worms II sucks, by the way.