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Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981)


A couple of months ago, I sat down and watch the "Omen" series of movies.  Since then, I've reviewed, the 1976 & 2006 releases of the first movie, as well as 1978's "Damien: Omen II".  This month, I'll be reviewing "Omen III: The Final Conflict".

Damien Thorn is grown up and appointed as the US Ambassador to Great Britian.  When an astronomical alignment occurs, Thorn realizes the time of The Second Coming is upon him, and he puts plans into operation to prevent it from happening.  Soon, Thorn and a group of priests are in a confrontation that will lead to mankind's destiny resting in the balance...

"Omen III: The Final Conflict" isn't  a bad movie.  I wouldn't say that it's a classic, but there are some things that I really liked.

The story is fairly solid, and well paced.  It gives all the characters a chance to be developed, and play a significant role in the events taking place.  Very few of the characters are filler.  Damien, Harvey Dean, Kate Reynolds and Father DeCarol all well formed, unique characters that were quite believable as people.  The only flaw to it is that it's not the rapid, in your face sort of story that appeals to much of the mainstream theatre audience these days.

The acting was good- with Sam Neil doing a terrific job as Damien.  He looked great in the role, and brought such charm and evil to the character.  Lisa Harrow as Reynolds was good as well- her portrayal of her character helped to make me care about what happened to her.

The camera work is plain and simple, but quite effective at times.  Like the story though, the camera edits are slower paced than what you'd find in most of the movies produced lately.

My most serious problem with this movie was the portrayal of The Second Coming at the end.  I was disappointed that they used a rather stereotypical image of Christ, rather than something a little more orignal.  I felt that they had simply taken his image from a painting and used that.  I also felt that the Scripture text at the end was unnecessary as well, and gave the movie a bit of a preachy overtone, which turned me off a little.

While I DID enjoy watching "Omen III: The Final Conflict," the ending and its execution causes me to put it in "The Bad".
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Comments

  1. Bleeding DeadApril 10, 2012 at 9:06 PM

    It's odd I just don't see Sam Neil as Damien. Given I have not seen this and from what you said he's good in it but just as a first instinct I would not think to cast him.

    Great review, too bad it feel in The Bad.

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    Replies
    1. Michael StewartApril 11, 2012 at 9:51 PM

      Possibly if the ending hadn't felt "preachy" to me, I probably would have put it in "The Good".

      Sam Neil IS great in the role.

      Delete

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