Dolph Lundgren fights zombies and robots! Repeat: Dolph Lundgren fights zombies and robots! And that’s all the information needed in deciding whether Battle of the Damned speaks to you.

The Expendables veteran plays Gatling — as in “gun,” get it? — a former Delta Force soldier dispatched to a city in Southeast Asia quarantined on account on the viral outbreak that has turned much of the populace into zombies. Because of that unfortunate incident, a military blockade is thought to be impenetrable, so how else will a rich white guy extract his daughter but to hire a he-man? (And the actual He-Man at that?)

I cannot tell a lie: There’s a palpable novelty to watching Lundgren — my favorite of the ’80s action heroes — mow down members of the undead; the addition of dealing with Battlestar Galactica-esque ‘bots is icing on that junk-food snack cake. I cannot tell a lie: And it is a novelty, meaning the gimmick carries a shelf life, which unfortunately falls mere minutes into all the rapid fire. Before Battle stops to catch a breath, its initial sparks of enthusiasm have settled into charred embers, all but extinguished.

Writer/director/producer Christopher Hatton, whose previous movie tread similar geekgasm territory as Robotropolis, gets a good-looking pic out of ugly Malaysian settings, but Lundgren deserves a better vehicle than anything that pairs him with a spunky young girl (feature-debuting Melanie Zanetti, here cast as a poor man’s Ellen Page) with raccoon makeup around her eyes. I’m not saying the sci-fi/action hybrid is a waste of one’s time, but hey, Damned if you do. —Rod Lott

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