PROPHECY 3: THE ASCENT
Could've been a lot worse
So full of bad decisions, poor execution and just plain lameness was the first half of this movie that I found myself thirstily anticipating the zeal with which I'd rip into it. But at about the halfway mark, this movie surprised me a little; it never really redeemed itself, but there's some neat stuff in the second half.
Prophecy 3 opens up with the unfortunate mother of a young boy being burned to death in her home. (this is the same lady played by Jennifer Beals in part 2) The boy (who, remember, is a Nefilim, a half-angel) gets away, and we get to see just what kind of guy he is in his teens; he's a street preacher with a sizeable congregation, and he's played by Dave Buzzotta. His philosophy: God exists, but He doesn't care in the least about humanity. I would guess that this congregation shows up seeking things other than inspiration.
Gabriel (Christopher Walken) shows up; if you'll recall, he was made human at the end of part 2. Then some blind maniac (Brad Dourif) shows up with a gun, shoots the preacher (who dies in a conveniently cruciform pose), and later is told by voices to kill himself, which he happily obliges. Then another angel (Vincent Spano) pops on the scene, why, again, you'll have to wait for the second half.
Also returning from the first two films is Steve Hytner as that hapless coroner; once comic relief, he's now all serious, all dreary, all drop-dead dull. Vincent Spano is no Christopher Walken, and a huge void is felt in the villainy department here now that Gabriel isn't such a big meanie. Walken himself doesn't do all that much better; he's not here much, and when he is, he's (gasp!) a nice guy. Man, this is the LAST thing I wanted to see happen to the Gabriel he'd so refreshingly given fiendish life to five years ago. At least he gets a few good lines ("I like it here. I even learned to drive.").
Like I said, the first half of this movie is a mess. Things which remain stubbornly unexplained until the second half aren't mysterious, they're just annoying. Why anything was going on seemed beside the point when I couldn't even tell WHAT was going on. It was about at the point where a donut store employee is given a nicely worded reason to cooperate with one angel that things started to turn around.
Sure, the rest of the movie is just as barren of ideas, but at least it's fun to watch. There's an exciting, gravity-defying footchase through L.A. streets, two really well-done hand-to-hand combat scenes (involving a strange weapon designed to yank out hearts), nifty visuals, and Gabriel's exit at the end of the movie is a nice touch, even though it's a shame to see such a good villain go to waste by spending the bulk of his screen time here (which is not very much) as being so sympathetic with humanity.
Like the first film, both urban and desert locations are exploited well, and there are a few very direct references back to that film as well (Gabriel stops by the same diner as he did previously, and the waitress remembers him). Moriah Shining Dove Snyder, the whitest-looking Indian girl I've ever seen (she unsurprisingly wasn't born with the "Shining Dove") (remember her from part 1? She was a lot smaller.), shows up at the end, and admittedly, she's pretty cute these days. And then we finally get to a fairly lame climactic battle between our hero (don't ask) and the only angel in this series who actually looks androgynous enough to be a hermaphrodite (played by Scott Cleverdon).
It was a close call, and there's no way I'd really recommend this, but I've seen a lot worse, and it's better than I'd expected, since I was expecting this series to fall into a Jaws-like pattern of having each film be only two-ninths as good as the one that came before. Directed by Patrick Lussier, who's like the Wes Craven house editor.
Oh yeah - the copy I viewed had a notice at the beginning that the film I'd rented had been "formatted to fit your TV screen and edited for content". Edited for content? What the hell?
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