V: The Final Battle
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Movie Reviews of V: The Final Battle
Movie Review: Minor concerns, but overall this one's off the charts
Summary: 5 Stars
The "Nazis from outer space" are back, and badder than ever in this continuation of the war between the Visitors and the Human Resistance movement. Marc Singer is back as the intrepid Donovan, who now has a personal score to settle with the Visitors because he has been informed by Fifth Columnist Martin (played with steely charm by Frank Ashmore) that his son is aboard the ship in a sort of suspended animation. Faye Grant is also back as Julie, the Resistance Leader whose own grudge against the Visitors is made even more personal when Diana (Jane Badler) attempts to "convert" her following a botched raid by the Resistance at the Los Angeles Medical Center, where Supreme Commander John (Richard Herd) is giving a speech. Robert Englund also returns as the sweetly clueless Willie, who ends up helping the Resistance after he is captured by them and exposed to the realities of what they are doing to the humans, and Michael Ironside makes his first appearance as Ham Tyler, who is part of a worldwide Resistance network and who also loooooooooves to blow stuff up, especially when there's Visitors inside.Of all the actors, both in the Original Miniseries and The Final Battle, I have to save my highest praise for Blair Tefkin, who was suddenly thrust into the role of Robin Maxwell when her predecessor, Dominique Dunne, was strangled to death by an ex-boyfriend outside the home of David Packer (Daniel Bernstein) only a short time after filming had commenced. Ms. Tefkin played the part of Robin very well, going from a teenager whose only concerns were boys and school to a young woman who finds herself in the midst of a battle for the very survival of the human race. Not only that, Robin also learns to her initial horror that she is with child, the result of a crossbreeding experiment authorized by Diana and carried out by Brian, the young Visitor she developed a crush on when he first came down from the LA Mothership (and who also ends up being the target of her revenge).
While I was disappointed that the DVDs had no extras apart from cast and crew listings, and I wasn't too happy with the treatment of Robin's half-human, half-Visitor daughter, Elizabeth, in the script, I gave this DVD a high rating because the story has been one of my favorites since high school. Along with its predecessor V: The Original Miniseries, I feel that this one is definitely a keeper.
Movie Review: Great Sci-Fi TV, But Really Not the Final Battle.
Summary: 5 Stars
Following the huge success of the miniseries V, NBC followed up a year later with the sequel to the saga, V: THE FINAL BATTLE. V: THE FINAL BATTLE begins not long after where V ended. Even after their successful attacks by resistance fighters, the Visitors are still in control of Earth and most of the world's population still believes the Big Lie: that the Visitors are here for purely peaceful purposes. In reality, the Visitors are giant reptiles who have come to drain the Earth of water and take away humans as food. The Resistance in L.A. has had the most success of any around the globe, but after a failed attack on a food processing plant, the group realizes they must go for a much larger mission.
Led by Mike Donovan (Marc Singer) and Julie Parish (Faye Grant) and assisted with the covert Fifth Column (Visitors who truly want peace) the L.A. Resistance hatches a plan to literally unmask the Visitors to the whole world. Other important events in the mini-series include the introduction of Ham Tyler (Michael Ironside), a former special operations operative that joins the Resistance and gives them the discipline, training, and weapons they need to become a major player in the fight for freedom; Robin has her baby, but "it" turns out to be twins; Julie is captured; and Mike's son, Sean is released from containment and returned to Earth.
I remember watching V: THE FINAL BATTLE when I was a kid. It was an amazing mini-series that captured my imagination. There are certain parts that I didn't quite understand as a kid (for instance, why is it that Robin's daughter, Elizabeth, has magical powers?) that still don't make sense today. Also, some of the effects that I was so impressed with as a youngster, such as the birth of Robin's twins (I had nightmares of that baby for weeks), seem downright cheesy and laughable now. However, overall V: THE FINAL BATTLE still holds up rather well as a piece of great science-fiction. There have been many technological advances since the series first aired, e.g. the Internet and cell phones, but despite that the allegorical components of the story (how would the U.S. turn from a democratic republic into a fascist state) hold up just as well today as they did in the early 1980s.
Anyone who has an interest in science fiction should see V and V: THE FINAL BATTLE.
Movie Review: Conversion chambers, lizard babies, and red dust galore!
Summary: 5 Stars
V: THE FINAL BATTLE was the much anticipated follow-up to NBC's 1983 mega hit V THE MINISERIES, a science fiction alien invasion piece which doubled as a World War II/Holocaust allegory.
Jane Badler returns as the evil Diana along with Marc Singer as the heroic cameraman turned resistance fighter, Mike Donavan, and Faye Grant as the medical student turned leader of the resistance Juliet Parrish. In Part One, we see the climactic takeover of the Visitors' historical televised address to the world by the resistance in which Juliet Parrish personally exposes John the supreme commander on international television. Part Two shows the tortuous conversion of Julie as well as the highly anticipated birth of Robin's...twins. Part Three shows the deliverance of the miraculous "Red Dust" into the hands of the resistance and the climactic final confrontation aboard Diana's mother ship.
When one recalls the greatest television miniseries, ROOTS comes immediately to mind. So does THE WINDS OF WAR, WAR AND REMEMBRANCE, and SHOGUN. V stands apart from all of these. It was never intended to be serious drama, serious romance, or even serious science fiction for that matter. It was intended to be serious fun! And on that level it succeeded more than your average run-of-the-mill summer blockbuster.
None of the actors in this show went on to bigger and better things, and yet V: THE FINAL BATTLE (or V in general) has earned its place not only among the science fiction greats of television history but also among the great miniseries events of television history as well.
Movie Review: Vastly Under- Rated
Summary: 5 Stars
The sequel to Kenneth Johnson's original V is a hugely under-rated epic. For whatever reason, there's the belief that the Nazi allegories aren't present in the sequel.
Nonsense, I say.
The Nazi allegory is still there, but whereas the first film was an allegory of the Nazi regime's rise to power, THE FINAL BATTLE is an allegory of the same during its height. In this "V" the visitors are at a point where they have effectively nuetrelized any effective opposition, and the humans have a choice: join the resistance and risk death, or postpone the inevitable by playing along with their charade.
The alien forces are much more brazen in this film, as the Nazis were at the height of their reign.
Members of the scientific and medical community continue to be a parallel to the Jews in Nazi Germany. One powerful scene involves a 'visitor youth corps' member demanding that a med student kneel down and lick his boots while an armed guard shouts "Do as you're told!"
This is done very brazenly in a public setting in broad daylight, with no concern as to who is watching. Such scenes serve to remind us that the planet earth is now the Visitor's turf, thereby creating a real sense of terror.
Great film!
Movie Review: One of Us One of Them
Summary: 5 Stars
This mini series did what the first one could not. It was very entertaining the entire time. The first one was predictable and slow, where this was filled with plot twists and action. I ecspecially like the twist with Julie played by Faye Grant. She was by far the bright spot in the series, as she portrayed the pressure of command with great realism. The miniseries is longer that the first set, but never becomes dull like the original was at times. I finished this series in one sitting at 1 am, because I could not hit the stop button. It reminds me alot of Red Dawn in the way that the resistance attacks the visitors. It starts out small and grows throughout the series. I do wish they would have included the distress signal from the original, but I guess they threw that plot line away. The special effects are not as good as the original, I guess that NBC didn't put as much money into this one. It doesn't hurt the series, but is noticably worse than the first. All the twists lead to a great ending that does conclude many of the plotlines. I don't know what the plotline is exactly for the regular series, but not much is left in the air at the end. V- The Final Battle is a great science fiction saga that should be given a chance by fans of the genre.