Puppet Master: the Littlest Reich (2018)

In this reboot of the puppet master franchise, comic book store worker Edgar has to move in with his parents after a messy divorce.  When he finds a creepy doll in a box in his brothers room, Edgar figures out it may have value since it was made by Andre Toulon, a creepy Nazi whose dolls murdered people.

Edgar, along with girlfriend Ashley and his boss Markowitz, head to a hotel where there is a Toulon Murder convention. He's hoping to make some money by selling the doll at auction.

With a hotel full of guests with Toulon puppets to sell, things go horribly wrong. Puppets start disappearing and people start dying.  The police are called in and aren't much help. But to be fair, how do you train to fight murderous Nazi puppets.

I'm not a fan of the Puppet Master franchise and was hesitant when a friend wanted to watch this. But it has Thomas Lennon. Barbara Crampton, and Michael Pare in it, so those are positives.  Surprisingly I enjoyed this more than the other films. People who are fans of the previous Puppet Master films will probably have an issue with this since they've made Toulon a Nazi. Also the puppets don't have personalities. They are just little killing machines and they target any group that Nazis dislike.

It seems like there may have been big hunks of the script edited out because there are things that just come out of nowhere or go nowhere. An example is the relationship between Edgar and Ashley.  She's the younger sister of someone he grew up with and hasn't seen him in years. They take a short walk together and catch up. Next thing you know she comes into the comic book shop and kisses him. Wait, are they dating? When'd that happen?  How'd that happen?

When they go to the convention, they've upgraded from dating to being a couple and even say they love each other. WHAT?!? What is going on? How much time has passed since they met? Are they horribly codependent? Or has a long period of time passed and the movie hasn't let us in on this?  It's completely confusing.

Also there is never an explanation of what happened to Edgar's brother. Based on the photos in his room, the brother died when he was in high school. Edgar mentions his brother died in an accident, but there's no context and it's never mentioned again. I thought for sure that was going to have some significance later in the film. Or did I miss something? I did drift off a bit at one point.

The end of the film could stand on it's own, but there is a to be continued in the last scene. I'd watch the next one based on this.