Review of Q: The Winged Serpent (1982) by Justin H — 29 Apr 2009

"Q" had the potential to be a b-movie classic. It had plot holes you could fly an ancient Aztec god through, some truly ludicrous action scenes, some memorably bad acting, and a flying, claymation monster.

So what went wrong? Well, in a nutshell, Michael Moriarty's character went wrong. The first 45 minutes or so were less about the flying serpent, and more about history's most inept getaway driver EVER.

But once he manages to get a taste of power, he immediately shifts from pathetically amusing to an annoying jackass. And it really killed the overall movie, as the second half gave his character far too much screen time.

The script didn't help him much here either, often times giving him lines that made his character sound as if he took the short bus to the movie sets. The writing itself was suitably awful to be joke-worthy overall, but I just couldn't get around Moriarty's grating character.

Sadly, that and a couple of overly drawn out scenes were all it took to anchor "Q" firmly in the territory of the mediocre.