siderite

(2013-06-16 00:56:17)

Sam Neil saves the day

If it weren't for Sam Neil, the movie would have sucked big time. Theplot is monstrously boring and without any logical merit. The castplays like they plan to retire from acting. Even the music sucks.The Antichrist is now a big boy, the priests keep coming at him, butdie almost by their own design, there is an army of evil worshipers,this could have been interesting. But it's not. The ending ruinseverything, as the guy dies stupidly. I am not spoiling anything if Isay the Antichrist dies, am I? :)Anyway, as movies go, I feel this is the best technical achievement inthe Omen trilogy, but its script makes it all bad.

(2013-06-15 13:39:17)

Good Closure

I just don't understand why you people don't seem to like this one. God, I thought Sam Neill was the perfect Antichrist, he sent shivers up and down my spine. He was everything you'd expect the Son of Satan to be: seductive, smooth, and cunning. And the last line is one my favorites in horror movies: "Nazrei, you have won... nothing".

(2013-06-14 16:48:05)

Part 3! 3 Stars!

Sorry, but I have to talk for a moment about the concept of the "Part 3". I like watching Part 3s, especially Part 3s to successful, blockbuster flicks. By the time you get to a Part 3 in a series, the screenwriters are trying their damnedest to put a new spin on the story and take it in a different direction to separate it from the first. This usually results in laughable, silly and outrageous ideas on film. After all, everything cool and worthwhile was in Part 1, and sometimes you can wring a few interesting concepts from a Part 2, but by Part 3 you're really stretching it(and of course even more so if more sequels are made). Stuff like Star Wars and Back to the Future don't count coz they were envisioned as trilogies from the getgo. But Part 3s can be very fun to watch in their own right. They might be bad films(in rare cases they are better than the Part 2), but can be enjoyed in a different way than the first film was enjoyed.It's because of Part 3s that Rocky is getting thrown out of the ring by Hulk Hogan, and that Superman is teaming up with Richard Pryor and dealing with an evil twin. It's also the reason Karate Kid 3 ended up being Karate Kid 3.Well, in this case of Part 3s, I'm talking about the Antichrist. No, not Will Farrell, good ol' Damien from The Omen. In the Final Conflict he has managed to go from 5 to 32 years old in the space of 5 years. He is now reigning king of Thorn Industries and ambassador to Great Britain. He gets a bit worried when he finds out that Christ has recently been reborn, and sends his "Disciples of the Watch"(Ha! Now I know where Testament got that!) to kill all babies born on that particular day. If that weren't stressful enough for the Antichrist, there's a gang of Antichrist hunters out to assassinate him. Armed with those daggers that were given to Gregory Peck in the first film, they periodically attack, only to fail of course. Besides, wasn't this act supposed to be carried out on hallowed ground? Oh well, it's a Part 3.There's also a reporter who has the hots for Damien, then eventually realizes who he is, but by that time her son has been brought into the Antichrist fold. Damien also introduces her to the wonderful world of rough sex.This movie is okay. It's not terribly exciting, but just interesting enough to make you want to see it through. Yes, some new concepts are thrown in, but this movie really doesn't feel like a horror film at all, and that's a far cry from the first Omen. I've always really liked Sam Neill, but it's difficult for me to buy him as the Antichrist. He's too nice or something. He seems more just like a corrupt and shrewd corporate headhoncho than the son of the devil. Plus, you'd think the "final conflict" between Jesus and the Antichrist would be a bit more epic. I mean, this is the battle of all battles, baby!! This should be Cecil B. Demille on friggin' steroids. This should make Lord of the Rings look like Deathstalker 4.Oh, well. I guess for a movie that was pretty unnecessary to begin with, it wasn't all that bad.

(2013-06-13 22:51:05)

World Demonation

Damien is all grown up here, & has taken his place as President of 'Thorn Industries', a global conglomerate incorperating everything from product manufacture to food charities, & is firmly allied with the UN {of course}. In the darkest of plans, children are sacrificed, a politician commits suicide {by the auspice of satanical forces}, & the homicidal efforts of a secret xian order to murder Damien Thorn rotinelt prove to be ineffectual & laughable. Thorn has his own "Ritual Chamber", in which the nazarene is crucified, not inverse as you would expect, but turned around so that his naked posterior shows most humiliatingly. Thorn blasphemously rants at the nazarene in a messe noiresque fashion, & shows what proves to be one of the most powerfully sacriligeous scenes in cinematographic history. "Nazarene......you have won NOTHING....."

(2013-06-12 21:21:55)

Great Classics!

This review is from: The Complete Omen Collection (The Omen - 1976/ The Omen - 2006/ Damien: The Omen II/ The Omen III: The Final Conflict/ The Omen IV: The Awakening) (DVD) Great quality and well, theyre decades old movies about the Anti-Christ so theyre pretty good. Sam Niell does an excellent job in 3!

Jeff

(2013-06-12 13:57:21)

Weakest Of The Trilogy

The story was mediocre, but seemed stolen from a lot of movies, but did not twist it around like the previous two have. The acting was alright, but expected something a bit more. The direction was alright, but for a third movie in a series it should have a better director. The visuals were great for its time and looked pretty good. Overall, it was the weakest of the trilogy, and even then it wasn't awful. It is worth a rental to kill some time on a Friday or Saturday night, though!

Big_Captain_Splatter

(2013-06-10 20:19:28)

An Interesting Movie

I had a very strange reaction to this film. I love it, I really meanthat, I LOVE it, but at the same time, I can't figure out why. It runsslow, it is not very suspenseful, and even some of the actors are alittle off. But still yet, for some reason, I really enjoyed thismovie.Damien Thorn, the evil being that we saw in the first two films, is nowgrown up. And even worse, he is not the US Ambassador to England. Nowthat he is a powerful man, he must find away to prevent the secondcoming of Christ. Fans of psychological horror will love this film. There are a bunch oftruly terrifying things that happen in this film, yet we don't seethem. A lot of them having to do with babies.Sam Neill does an excellent job at playing the adult Damien Thorn. Heis truly talented in the acting business. This is a good film, and should be watched by all fans of the firsttwo.

Horrorible_Horror_Films

(2013-06-10 02:37:52)

Good solid horror film

As far as horror films go, I believe The Final Conflict has gotten abad rap. Now, this is obviously not some all time greatest movie of alltime or anything like that, but it really is a well made film, and agood horror film. Considering that I only watch horror movies, andevery review I've done on IMDb has been extremely negative of reallyhorrible horror films (hence my name) this being the first positivereview I've given is really saying something, at least for me anyway :)In The Final Conflict, our hero (or rather not I guess, since he IS theanti-Christ) Damien is all grown up and using his demonic ways tobasically take over the world for Satan. The one melodramatic scenewhere he gives his little speech to his father Satan is pretty stupidand could have done without (although the scuptlure of Christ in thatscnece is actually a pretty amazing work of art), but other than thatthis is a fine horror film. The atmosphere is great, decentperformances. His scene with the president (played by Mason Adams)makes you chuckle and ties in so well how all politicians (as well aseverything to do with politics) are so deeply in league with Satan.A couple shocking violent scenes, really creepy atmosphere, greatcinematogrpahy - this film is clearly from an analogue age, beforedigital anything was in use. Perhaps this is part of the reason manydon't like this movie, today's horror films are a lot easier to makedue to digital advances (which is a good thing) so they appear to havehigh production quality, but are really terrible made, written anddirected. The final conflict is well made, and of course the score byJerry Goldsmith is excellent and adds much to the film, definitelywould have been a worse movie without his score, I can't say enough howgood it is. The mix of very old musical ideas with modern ones, (aswell as a few tritones of course) really makes the movie in many waysfor me.So see The Final Conflict if your a horror fan.

(2013-06-09 01:27:13)

A"Must Have" Collection!

This review is from: The Complete Omen Collection (The Omen - 1976/ The Omen - 2006/ Damien: The Omen II/ The Omen III: The Final Conflict/ The Omen IV: The Awakening) (DVD) Purchased this a long time ago. Was very pleased with it. Will watch again soon. Thanks Amazon for always shipping promptly and in good condition.

(2013-06-08 07:33:33)

The Omen (the end)

At first, it would seem The Omen 3 (1981) is mistitled as "the final conflict" but really it isn't. This is where the franchise was plannned to end and where it should have ended. If you're as hooked as me and haven't seen Omen 4, stop with this one so you'll continue to have great memories ofthe frightfest called the Omen.In The Omen 3 (1981), Damien is an adult and CEO of The Thorn Enterprises. He is a smart and charismatic politician and an extremely powerful man positioned to achieve even more greatness so that his father might one day rule the world. To stop him from plunging the world into darkness, there's a group of priests who are after Damien. Damien is well protected by his disciples and can only be killed with a special dagger. Like the first two films, this film is well made especially considering most horror sequels end up being shlockfests rather than frightfests. The movie has several scenes that'll stick with you and another strong script with good performances from the actors. The story continues to be very convincing and very creepy. Overall I think that it was a solid effort and a great sequal that wraps up the trillogy though with a lot more gore than the previous films.

(2013-06-07 23:33:07)

I love this movie

This review is from: Omen IV: The Awakening [HD] (Amazon Instant Video) A must see! Damien has kids;) if you loved the first 3 then this is for you or anyone...The ending leaves it open so I wasn't to happy there.

(2013-06-07 12:50:34)

The Series was a Waste of Time.

Viewed: 10/04, 10/07Rate: 210/07: Darn it, could the series be any worse? Thank goodness this is the last of it. Omen III: The Final Conflict commits a lot of stupidities while trying to be the biggest bang of the series. How the film ended was equivalent to a whimpering deflated balloon. As I remember correctly from The Omen, the first dagger is to extinguish the physical life, and the rest of the seven daggers each do something specific. Also, the killing must be done on a hallowed ground. Moreover, it must occur on the altar. Yeah, well...in Omen III: The Final Conflict, each priest carries a dagger and tries to kill him with it. Then, most of the attempts, probably I would say all of them, just happened to be on unhallowed ground. Oh yeah...I didn't see an altar either. Finally, we have seen the stupidity of the movie. The way how the priests prayed with each dagger, it was a sequence of cornball scenes. The older Damien Thorns gets, the more powerful he becomes in terms of manpower. But only one guy with him at all times? Come on, give me a break. Worse than that, he goes on to disobey him. That's quite unlikely and improbable, given the fact that anybody under power of Damien Thorn would have followed orders without question. The way how Omen III: The Final Conflict went on, it felt like Damien Thorn was asking for it and got what he wanted: getting killed so simply. Man, you mean the whole series was a sham? It certainly was. I don't entirely understand why Damien would wait for thirty-two years before he can realize his true goals because basically he can use his telepathic powers and get what he wants sooner than expected. Another problem with the plot behind Omen III: The Final Conflict is that there should have been a full-scale investigation, by the police or at least the media, concerning the weird deaths that have occurred. That alone should have casted a black eye on Damien Thorn's pristine background. Half of the time, the movie is devoted to fancy soliloquies to some ceramic figure. I was ready to fall asleep in midst of it. Simple, why not just hire a mercenary and have him to stab Damien Thorn with the seven daggers and be done with it? I can't imagine John Rambo failing in this task. So, after the sexual intercourse, the woman will give birth of a devil? Speaking of babies, where was the Nazarene child? It was like the subplot got dropped completely. Oh yeah, the director had to throw in couple of biblical passages to give this awesomely power to Omen III: The Final Conflict. Guess what? They ended up looking sillier than ever. Did I think that Damien would win? Of course not. So! What! Was! The! Point! Of the whole trivially idiotic series! Had he succeeded then more power to the series. How about those monks? How insanely stupid are they? They couldn't even kill Damien, let alone a fly. I am thinking of the scene where the priest tries to kill Damien during an interview (I forget how he fell down in a "Whoops!" way), and I can't shake the sheer incredulity of that one. Anyway, thankfully the series ended with Omen III: The Final Conflict with an extra film not so part of it at all. What I thought how this should have happened: make a two hour film with first hour as The Omen, use parts of Damien: Omen II, and final half hour being Omen III: The Final Conflict. Finally, you'll have a pretty good film to work with, considering the fact that all of Damien: Omen II and most of Omen III: The Final Conflict is full of I-know-already-you-don't-need-to-tell-me-twice.

tfrizzell

(2013-06-05 23:00:35)

This Is the End.

Another inferior sequel in the famed "The Omen" series suffers from the sameproblems that plagued "Damien: Omen II" (dull pacing, stiff characters, poorwriting and unclear direction). The anti-christ is an adult now (in the formof Sam Neill this time) and his conquest of the world for Satan is slowlycontinuing, but a cabal of monks have obtained the daggers that can kill himand the Christ-child has been reborn in England. Thus Damien must have allchildren terminated who were born on the day of the Christ-child's rebirthand dodge those pesky daggers that keep popping up. An almost interestingpremise is destroyed by some trivial situations and an idea that had gottenold by the start of the second installment. Followed later by adirect-to-video sequel. 2 stars out of 5.

(2013-06-05 07:55:05)

A tremendous final thud

This review is from: Omen III: The Final Conflict (DVD) If this film is to be believed, the final battle between good and evil, the antichrist vs. the son of god, will entail people sitting in offices, yakking away, or occasionally making vague and ambiguous taunts to crucifixes. Oh, and there'll be a fox hunt and some angry beagles, and poor TV set safety standards. Does this send chills up your spine? Of course not. This final chapter (aside from a TV movie, which is really spin-off) in a horror series that started so auspiciously and so atmospherically, is cheap and incredibly dull. The plot is a meandering series of mind-numbingly boring scenes, none of which generate any suspense or even seem to fit together. There is no sense of eternal conflict or the fate of the world possibly hanging in the balance. There aren't even any creative, fun death scenes like in the first two. Neill is remarkably bland as the antichrist, but the script never makes him any more than a somewhat unethical businessman (even ordering his hypnotized but dull-as-dishwater followers to murder infants doesn't come across as particularly evil). Goldsmith's score is spectacular, but it only reminds you how little is actually occurring on screen. Ultimately, The Final Conflict is just a fish out of water, weakly struggling until it runs out of air and dies entirely. A complete waste of time and money on a subject that deserved a true epic treatment. Only bother with this if you liked the first two Omen films.The DVD provides one extra: commentary from director Baker (Alien Nation). He's about as exciting as the movie.

(2013-06-05 04:00:55)

The Final Letdown

This installment of the 'Omen' saga is a major disappointment, though the basic plot has a lot of potential. Damien Thorne (the son of the Devil as portrayed by a flaccid Sam Neill) is now a charismatic 33 year-old politician and business tycoon well on his way to the Presidency-and the implied opportunity to unleash apocalyptic chaos on the world. The only fly in the ointment is a Biblical prophecy (and some very sketchy astrology) telling of the imminent second coming of Christ somewhere in England. In order for the powers of darkness to triumph once and for all the infant Jesus has to be hunted down and killed,so Thorne has himself appointed US ambassador to Britain . Along the way he has to contend with a band of monks who are aware of his true identity and will stop at nothing to kill him with seven sacred daggers.To cut to the chase, this film is agreeably watchable and somewhat thought-provoking but not at all scary or horrific. There is an attempt for the horror to be more psychological than visceral. Despite a high body count, the spectacular set-piece deaths that were the hallmark of the first two films are sorely missing from this one. There is NOTHING that is even close to the dismemberments, impalings, and decapitations that made Omen 1 and 2 so compelling. The only moment that comes close involves a door handle, a revolver, and some typewriter ribbon (remember that?)- all orchestrated by an evil Rottweiler. Making Damien an adult this time around puts the film at a disadvantage compared to it's predecessors. The idea of a young boy being the originator of tremendous evil is infinitely more disturbing than the rather banal assertion that grown men can be malicious. Worse, a large part of the attempted mayhem in this one is perpetrated by Damien's dull, one-dimensional human disciples rather than by overwhelmingly powerful satanic forces.The star-wattage is much lower than in previous efforts despite Rossano Brazzi being mostly wasted as the head of the monastic murder squad. It would have been interesting to have had, say, Richard Burton or Larry Olivier (both of whom were living at the time and had no problems about starring in mediocre junk if the price was right) add a bit of gravitas to the proceedings a la Gregory Peck and Lee Remick in the original movie or William Holden in 'Omen 2'. In fairness to Sam Neill he tries his best with an extremely iffy script, but he's just too charming and doesn't exude the dark menace the audience needs to feel for his character to be truly unsettling.The final thing that bothered me about this movie is that there is simply way too much daylight for a horror film! This might sound facetious but the majority of the locations are sunny, scenic, and downright NICE! Both the previous films had a darkly Gothic nuclear-winter atmosphere with the action taking place in desolate, ugly, shadowy settings- the kind of locales where one can't help but anticipate gruesome things happening. Large parts of 'Conflict' look like a Constable landscape or a tourist promo for the joys of Middle England- places where the only things anyone is likely to die from are boredom or a noxious attack of hayfever.And that's pretty much it. Oh, there's a subplot involving a TV journalist (played by a wooden actress with a ghastly rustic Seventies wardrobe) who has an affair with Damien and whose son comes under his evil influence- it's superfluous to requirements and utterly predictable. The aforementioned murderous monks are kind of engaging but are so totally inept in their efforts to kill the Evil One that it's hard to feel any sympathy for them. This plotline also breaks the Code of Sequels by rewriting the rules set in the first film. It's years since I saw it but I clearly recall that Damien has to be stabbed with all seven daggers on holy ground for him to be truly killed-it's why the original movie ends as it does. This makes nonsense of the attempts on Damien's life that are attempted in a TV studio, and later on at a foxhunt- with just one dagger! All I'll say about the ending is that it's an anticlimax.To wrap up, it's not all bad. The soundtrack is well done and is probably the most effective tool the film has for holding the viewer's interest. Back when this was made (1981)I believe that the thinking on sequels was that each one had less time, effort, and money spent on it because it would bring in smaller profits than it's predecessor. That thinking was very clearly in effect on this effort. Which is a shame since the basic idea is a good one and could have been put on the screen to absolutely stunning effect with a different cast, script, plot, and director. 'The Final Conflict' is sufficiently diverting to be worth a look on late night cable or as a dollar rental but really ought to be a final option under any other circumstances.

(2013-06-05 00:33:34)

One Big, Giant "HUH?"

The first film, THE OMEN, is one of my all-time favorite movies, but the sequels go from watchable (DAMIEN: OMEN II) to downright baffling.By the time we get to this film, THE FINAL CONFLICT, it appears that the filmmakers have completely lost touch with their source material and have no idea what they're doing.Did any of them bother looking at the Book of Revelations?I understand budget restraints and such, but how can you literally change biblical prophecy to fit their lame story?The people who saw the original film and were filled with dread understood the coming evil embodied in the demonic child.By the time they get to THE FINAL CONFLICT, they've got to be scratching their heads.The Second Coming of Christ is going to be a tad bit more cataclysmic than featured here.And the fate of the Antichrist is completely baffling.THE FINAL CONFLICT is like making a movie about Adolph Hitler and he's assassinated in 1936.Think about it.

tessag

(2013-06-04 07:59:27)

LOVED IT

the omen 3, final conflict, is the best out of all of them. The story was well planned and was great to watch. This is the kind of movie you can't stop thinking about.

(2013-06-03 21:53:08)

What a collection!

I watched the entire set on Halloween with my family. The collection was fullfilling, grat, intense and sent chills up my spine. I am happy that I could add this to my DVD collections.

(2013-06-01 15:52:35)

Omen 3

Snooze Fest, Watch Parts 1 and 2 instead, a Lowpoint after the first two. but perhaps not as bad as the 4th installment.

(2013-06-01 11:44:53)

Yeah... very scary!!!

Oh Yeah. I am sooooooooooo scared to watch this movie alone coz I am just a kid. Barf! And I watched it many times myself that I still cannot remember the story. All I know is: this is the most boring among the three. BORING!