Darkman III: Die Darkman Die (1996)

Expectations were low for this second sequel which has the wide reputation of being the worst in the trilogy. Well, I can safely say that this one is a lot more enjoyable than DARKMAN II: THE RETURN OF DURANT, as it's not just a rerun of Raimi's original film. Here Darkman finds himself up against another evil villain, this time played by a hammy Jeff Fahey, and also falls in love. As both this and the first sequel were made back-to-back on a low budget of $7 million, the special effects are fairly basic and there's no way this rises above a typical straight-to-video level. At least it's fairly entertaining.Arnold Vosloo returns as Darkman, but (if that's possible) he's given even less characterisation here than he was previously! Instead he just runs around a lot and tries to get back his special skin formula which the bad guys have stolen from him. Along the way he falls foul of a corrupted scientist (played by Darlanne Fluegel, in a similar role to her one in SCANNER COP), and falls in love with the criminal's wife, played by STAR TREK actress Roxann Biggs-Dawson.For entertainment value this film offers up an exciting action set piece around the middle of the film, which sees Darkman escaping from the bad guys by hopping over some exploding drums, lots of rubber mask hijacks like in the previous instalments, and the presence of Jeff Fahey, who is by far the best thing in this film. An actor consigned to star in straight-to-video films and television movies, Fahey cuts an imposing presence as the villain here, and the ending is absolutely hilarious and very nearly makes the film for me. Movie fans also might like to note that the script is by the guys who went on to do FACE/OFF for John Woo, and if you look closely there are a lot of similarities and similar scenes between the two films - it's interesting to compare them. Otherwise, DARKMAN III is more of the same for fans of the series, a step up from the previous entry but still below average. Not one to go out of your way to see.

Bradford May once again directs this third(and last?) installment, again starring Arnold Vosloo as Peyton Westlake/Darkman, who gets mixed up with more gangsters after stealing their money to fund his continued experiments to perfect his synthetic skin grafts. The gang leader(played by Jeff Fahey) decides to set a trap for Darkman in order to study his superpowers, and use them to become even more powerful and rich. Darkman must defeat this gang, and complete his journey once and for all.Filmed at the same time as Part II, sequel is no better or worse, since the plot and story elements are so familiar. Not very credible either, with an inconclusive ending, though it has yet to be continued...

Within the first 17 minutes of director Bradford May's "Darkman III: Die Darkman Die", we have already been subjected to a silly recap and accompanying voice-over on the first two films, hilarious over-acting, about three minutes of footage simply ripped from the second film and re-edited slightly to seem like new footage, and a lengthy advertisement the scarred and tormented title character watches about Universal Theme Parks- Universal being the company that distributed this film. Yes, "Darkman III: Die Darkman Die" is quite the handful when it comes to cheap cash-ins on the success of a previous film.This time around, the disfigured anti-hero Peyton Westlake (aka, "Darkman"; portrayed by "Mummy" actor Arnold Vosloo) locks horns with evil crime-lord and lousy husband Peter Rooker (played in a brilliantly over-the-top performance by Jeff Fahey), and over the course of the 87 minute film grows to develop an affection for Rooker's wife and daughter, once again learning to care for another person.Blah. Blah. Blah.This film is basically just a silly way for the studio to make some more money off of Sam Raimi's original film, which I consider to be a great action-suspense film.Oh yeah, and there are also a number of silly sub-plots, including a villainess who supposedly was one of the original doctors to save Darkman following his scarring, and her seducing our hero into thinking she is an ally before revealing her nefarious plot to help Rooker create more super-human powered thugs like Darkman. Apparently, she can't just do the same procedure on the thugs that she performed on Darkman. Why? I can't really explain it, because the movie certainly doesn't.There's also an assassination sub-plot involving a District Attourney who is threatening to bring down Rooker's organization, and some other very silly things going on.But it doesn't really add up. This film feels like two or three episodes of a television show edited together more than an actual film. The direction alternates between pretty good and downright sloppy (a scene where Darkman rides his train-like vehicle and dodges a rocket-launcher is just plain silly), and the editing is a mixed-bag. The film just moves too quickly for anyone to really care what's going on. And without spoiling it, the final 15 minutes of this movie, and indeed, the entire series is just kinda... I dunno... Another 15 minutes of mixed-bag footage.In fact, commenting on the editing, one of my favorite things in this film is watching for footage re-used from the previous films, and then looking for footage within this film that is repeated multiple times. Yes, it's that cheap. It's one thing to do a re-cap at the beginning of the film, and maybe repeat a shot or two, but in the sheer volume they do it (minutes of footage repeated from previous films), it's just sloppy and amateurish.Also, I have to say that Darkman's psychedelic montage freak-outs are a bit overdone in this film. They are so stylized and overdone that they do work, but only in light doses and in proper context, as Raimi did in the original film. Here, there are at least four or five, and they feel very abrupt and out-of-place.That being said, the film is not without some good points. A few action scenes are well-done. The cliché story of Darkman yearning for a real life works suitably for a direct-to-DVD feature. Some of the acting is nice, particularly from Rooker's wife, portrayed by the beautiful Roxann Dawson. Also, while no Danny Elfman, composer Randy Miller composes some nice music that builds off of Elfman's original themes.But overall, the film is too quick, cheap and silly to be taken seriously. Arnold Vosloo seems alternatively bored and exuberant from scene to scene, and Fahey, while a joy to watch as an over-the-top villain, just doesn't quite fit in with the series.Like "Darkman II", I would recommend this to fans of the original, who will surely get a laugh. Otherwise, you need not apply. A four out of ten.

Darkman 3: Die Darkman Die is directed by Bradford May, the same guy who made the first Darkman sequel too. Darkman 3 is worse than Darkman 2, and is nothing special, in my opinion. Larry Drake is no more as a main villain, who is now played by great Jeff Fahey, whose character once again wants to get Darkman's work and create this time some ultra strong humans in order to get the leadership of the whole city. The film is pretty much the same in plot and execution as Darkman 2, but I was mostly irritated by the presence of many scenes from Darkman 2. These sequels were made in short time and with little money, so these kind of decisions had to be made. Couple of scenes are pretty stylish and exiting, but still this is pretty tired film and often irritatingly stupid, too. The characters scream and laugh too much and it is very annoying. There is no any philosophical depth in the film, and this is like a remake of Darkman 2 which it still cannot equal. Darkman 2 had many great scenes and stylish camera work, and Larry Drake's ability to play great villain. Darkman 3 offers only some nice scenes and moments, but mostly this film is tired and full of cliches. The few positive things in this movie are flashback edits (Westlake's nightmares) and couple of truly surprising plot turns and tricks. And worth mentioning is also pretty nasty death scene of the main villain which was pretty comic book like and inventive without any gore. Far more interesting than the death of main villain in part two. Darkman 3 is worst in the whole series, and we must remember that these two sequels were made directly to video and they don't come even close to Raimi's original Darkman with Liam Neeson. Darkman 2 was okay actioner with plenty of great scenes and suspense, but this last (?) entry is tired and often stupid and boring piece of sequel. It has some merits as mentioned, but overall feeling is that this should not been made in the first place. May is talented director so hopefully he can get some more noteworthy projects in the future.3/10