Why even call this “Rottweiler”? That’s what I’m interested in discovering. What’s the point? I’m confused as to why the director and screenwriter and Lions Gate Films felt it necessary to call this film “Rottweiler” when we only ever see the actual eponymous robo-mutt every so often. Instead of featuring the same old laboratory creature gone wild plot, “Rottweiler” instead focuses on a chain gang that breaks out of a prison. The lone fugitive named Dante is on the run from the robotic Rottweiler which happens to be cannibalistic, vicious and has one objective: to tear the on the lam fugitive a new one.
For a portion of the first half, we barely ever see the Rottweiler, and instead we’re drawn to focus on our vapidly drawn out characters that include our loathsome hero, his boring back story, cliché voodoo African soothsayers, and the dog which has no personality, or appeal. “Rottweiler” certainly is a film without rhyme, reason, or purpose. It doesn’t even work as a cheesy monster film, because there’s simply no point to it or any of the proceedings. I can’t really decide how to classify this, whether as a science fiction horror, or vice versa, because the film’s content constantly shifts back and forth to the point of confusion and there’s simply no one to relate to.
The dog is tracking the fugitive Dante, and is intent on killing him, and then what? The fugitive is trying to outwit the dog and flee, to where? Once the dog kills him, what does he do next? Why is the dog finding victims in his mission and killing them for no reason? And if he’s so scrambled, how is he still determined to catch the fugitive even when acting haywire? And for some reason there’s rarely moments when both characters are on-screen together.
Perhaps it’s due to budget constraints or something, but the editing fixes it that the dog and the anti-hero are never onscreen at the same time only chopping it so it looks as if he’s chasing him down switching from dog to man back and forth, and to the hazy red perspective of the dog’s eyes. And then when it’s not being completely stupid, it shamelessly rips off “The Terminator” except with his doggy sidekick, and not an actual man. Dante runs back and forth through the land, comes across assorted characters, beds a lonely woman, has really dull flashbacks, and the dog continues its fetching which all ends in a large fire and unveiling of the dogs inner-skeleton which happens to look, surprise surprise, metallic.
Meanwhile Yuzna feels inclined to drift to characters for no reason, and in one of the most unusual sequences, while robo-mutt attacks a helpless woman, we constantly cut back to a chicken screaming in reaction. Seriously. Director Yuzna feels conveying the emotions of the story would be best by watching the reaction of a horrified chicken during an attack. “Rottweiler” is not only pointless, but it’s lackluster, and it’s inadvertently ridiculous. Robo-mutt takes the place of the terminator and Cujo, an utterly boring and unwatchable story, lackluster action, vapid characterization, and action that’s anything but action make up what I can describe as a lame-brained sci-fi horror crap fest that shouldn’t be viewed unless you have no other option at hand.