Fase IV: Destrucción

I have seen this film numerous times, starting when I was ten yrs old and it has always had a peculiar fascination for me. It moves a bit slower than most modern viewers are used to but it is pretty compelling stuff.The ant photography is amazing. When I was a small boy and I heard about this I was expecting something along the lines of THEM! and anyone who has seen this knows it is about as far from that as you can imagine. But even as a youngster wanting something more un-subtle and action-oriented, I was not turned off by PHASE IV's slow art-film qualities.It is a shame Saul Bass never directed again because this was a valiant effort to do something a little different. I say bravo! Seen in widescreen for the first time after years of TV viewings and the panned & scanned VHS the new DVD of Phase IV is a revelation. The compositions and use of color are masterful.

Michael Murphy and Nigel Davenport play two scientists studying the recent peculiar behavior of ants after a strange outer space phenomenon has occurred. They rescue a young woman(played by Lynne Frederick) who has survived an ant attack that destroyed her family and farm. Seems the(normal) sized ants have evolved into a collective intelligence, and are studying them as well, in the next step of mutual evolution...

Weird(to say the least)film is nonetheless quite original and intelligent; seems to be partially inspired by "2001: A Space Odyssey", and though not a masterpiece, still contains some quite striking visual imagination and ambition(courtesy of director Saul Bass) and a mind-bending ending that gives much to ponder. A thought-provoking Sci-Fi film that deserves to be better known.

To me, this is even better than MICROCOSMOS. The ants in this film are just as brilliant and powerful to watch as actors normally are! The ants are what steal the show! This is really more of an art film than it is a sci-fi/horror film. The plot is pretty much typical for a killer ant film.

What makes the film cool are the ants themselves. Personally I think that this should be considered a milestone in film-making, when insects are the stars! In addition to the ants, the camera-work is absolutely spectacular. There are these really amazing close-ups of the ants and they are nothing but a joy to behold. The human world is shot beautifully as well. There are some great shots of the country and the dirt road that are among some of the most breathtaking I have seen.

As a B-movie, fans will be satisfied. It's definitely a very entertaining film and it has it's fair share of fun cheese ball moments. It's a very entertaining film, it's a very beautiful film, and it is among one of the coolest and most satisfying films I have ever seen! I highly recommend this forgotten classic!!

While it's true that "Phase IV" is rather slow moving in spots, and that the human characters are ciphers with no real depth to speak of, "Phase IV" is a nice sally at an experimental science fiction film that emphasizes mood and dread over action and character development.

I had the good fortune to watch this on a really large flat screen TV, and the amazing insect photography (major kudos to the editor who managed to integrate it so completely into the story!) and dissonant synthesizer laden sound track come through nicely with good viewing equipment - they add the proper utterly alien and inhuman feel to the movie and turn something pretty good into something really creep and spooky.

Although the characters are admittedly pretty flat, that's undoubtedly on purpose. "Phase IV" is all about the subjection of the human characters to the overwhelming power of a hive mind where "personality" is besides the point. Even so, Nigel Davenport brings the good stuff to his role as the biologist trying to contain the ants, and you both know everything you need to know and everything you'll ever know about in the first five minutes...without ever knowing him at all.

An ambiguous and otherworldly/mystical ending might not sit well with a lot of viewers who like their science fiction movies to wrap things up by the end. And, OK, the goofy little montage at the end with the mathematician and the gamin doesn't really match the quality of the hallucinatory insect footage that preceded it.

Still, Saul Bass knew how to present an otherworldly, truly alien experience, but he was probably just too far ahead of his time.

A classic of sorts.

Phase IV is an incredible full length feature film by Saul Bass who is most acclaimed as a graphic designer who's work can be seen as the opening credits from The Seven Year Itch, Vertigo, West Side Story to Alien, Broadcast News and Casino. Phase IV is a much overlooked film that is very much in the style of The Andromeda Strain. What it perhaps lacks in story, it gains in the photography of the millions of ants - the film's additional cast.