The Prophecy 3: The Ascent (2000)

I love him as a good guy, finally he is in this third installment.I just wish the younger actors can act, but oh well, Christopher Walken saved the movie.I made sure I watch Prophecy I & II before I watched this one.The movie made sense except when the Doc said Thomas was not in a monastery, because in Prophecy II, it was clear he said Thomas became a Monk, and died in the monastery.Other than that, the movie flows properly, the special effects is also much better on this one.I am happy I finally saw all 3 of them.

Once again, Christopher Walken returns as the Arch-Angel Gabriel. As the War in Heaven and on Earth rages on, Pyriel, the Angel of Genocide, rises to power, intending to destroy all of mankind.Brad Dourif as the zealot really makes this movie for me, but we also have classic Walken -- the talk, the mannerisms, explaining his drivers license... this is the Walken that has made him a cultural icon.Why Pyriel is depicted as being against humanity, or being an angel of genocide, is unclear. Traditionally, he has the task of examining the soul of each person brought to heaven after death. He works for God, not Satan. But I suppose angels can rebel at any time, they need not do so only at the time Satan originally did.All in all not a bad little film, and the director (Lussier) really deserves more credit than he gets for his contributions to the horror genre.

Is it me or is this and part two a total rip off from The Terminator and Terminator 2. Think about it. In The Terminator a man was sent back in time to protect a predetermined mother of the chosen one. He ends up being the father and dies at the end at the hands of the Terminator only to have the Terminator become a good guy and protect the chosen one against a new evil in part two. In the Prophecy 2 and Angel comes to earth to impregnate a predetermined mother of the chosen one. Ends up dying at the hands of Gabriel who becomes human in part three and protects the chosen one against a new evil. Really all they did was exchange Cyborgs for Angels and instead of a Human/Cyborg war it's a human/angel war. Now the movie was pretty decent but because it's a total rip off you'd be better of watching The Terminator and Terminator 2. Better story line and waaaaaaay better graphics.

It's been a long time since I've seen "The Prophecy" and "The Prophecy 2", so I have to admit that my fading memories of those movies resulted in me being somewhat confused on some details of "The Prophecy 3". I do remember that Walken's character had been stripped of power and became a human at the end of the previous movie. But his character here seems different, not the villainous figure he previously was. He seems to have some kind of supernatural powers now. He actually seems to be angling to be a good guy at times. But anyway, I found his character to be very inconsequental - he could have easily been written out of the movie. Maybe that's why Walken gives an underwhemling performance here.I found the other characters to be poorly constructed as well. The main bad guy was simply not that interesting, with murky motives. By the time the underwhelming climax rolled around, I simply didn't care anymore.Anything positive to say about this movie? Well, for a made-for-video movie, the production values are overall okay. Despite many cost-cutting measures (like frequent close-ups and unimaginative L.A. and desert locations chosen), the movie looks okay to the eye. But even big-budget film-making would not have helped the sorry script.