El fantasma IV - El olvido

Just watched this series of movies for the first time, and was very disappointed at the ending of Oblivion, there was so much promise in the story and characters, even tho it was getting pretty silly. In the end they just "dropped the ball" on everything, so to speak..

I strongly recommend these movies to any horror/action movie fan, but its a huge shame the last movie was so.. just overall crappy. In lack of a better way of describing it. All the suspense and mystery was totally gone towards the end, and replaced with confusion and despair, as the movie suffered towards its inevitable credits text, leaving the viewer feeling sad and empty, almost betrayed.

I struggled to give this movie a 4 rating.

What makes this series so consistent is the fact that the same writer/director, Don Coscarelli, is responsible for all four entries. Some phans prefer the second film for its tendency to lean more toward being an action film, while others like the cartoonish, over-the-top aspects of the third entry. Personally, I think this one (IV) is the best sequel. I love the fact that it is more in the moody, psychological vein of the original, which is by far the best in the series in my opinion. IV uses some beautiful locations- a rocky beach, a desert with intricate rock formations, and a completely unpopulated downtown Los Angeles (I'm assuming that's what city it is). These serve as really interesting backdrops for Mike, Reggie, Jody and the Tall Man (all the original actors returned, too). All this is beautifully shot by D.P. Chris Chomyn, who did a great job. The plot is not completely clear, but also not complex. The Tall Man is after Mike with the intent to turn him into another "Tall Man" sort-of undertaker. Meanwhile there's a subplot where Reggie encounters a beautiful female on the road (as he does in both other sequels). The dialogue is sparse and much of the meaning is implied. One of the most impressive things about the film is the way they were able to incorporate so much unused footage from the original (19 years earlier) into the story. Despite the time difference, the new film and the old footage work together perfectly, and that is a really cool thing to behold. The film actually ends with a flashback- a poignant and subtle scene that is unlike the endings of the other three movies, leaving the series with what could be a perfect close. But if Coscarelli and Co. want to come back and do another one, what Phantasm phan is gonna dispute it?! Not me!

The Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) has been spreading his devastations. The neighboring towns have been abandoned to the monsters. Mike is driving towards Death Valley to escape his pending transformation. Reggie is also on the road and rescues beautiful Jennifer from a car wreck.

This is generally messy. Mike's journey is a series of random dimensional turns. It's a mistake to separate Mike and Reggie. When the movie opens with a flashback of the trio walking through the door, I hoped for the three of them going on a quest together. It is nice to have the three of them return for this movie but splitting them up loses any hope of chemistry. The logic and the world of this franchise is simply getting too messy. This movie needs a good story. In an aside, I don't like the CGI spheres, no matter how many spheres. There is something solid, something creepy about a real physical floating sphere.

As Reggie (Reggie Bannister) searches for the missing Mike (A. Michael Baldwin), Mike himself travels through various dimensions and across time itself to learn the origins of the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) in hopes of discovering a way to stop him once and for all.

The series attempts to return to its roots a bit, dropping most of the humor from the last two entries, and trying for the off-kilter dream-state of the first film. The film is helped a great deal by use of a lot of footage that was filmed for the original back in '79 but that was edited out, so we get several scenes of the characters as they were back then. The origin of the Tall Man is finally established (somewhat), and that will either be a good thing or a frustrating thing for fans of the series. The sections focusing on Reggie tread much of the usual territory, and there are a couple of over the top gags that will delight or disgust. The ending this time is even more ambiguous than usual. The next (and final?) sequel arrived 18 years later.

First off, let me say that Angus Scrimm is a National Treasure and any Phantasm movie is worth watching just for his performance.

The first two Phantasms were excellent, pure works of imagination that are unlike any other horror series. As for part 3, I've only seen part of it on Sci-Fi and as its not available yet on DVD, I don't remember it too well but presumably OblIVion takes over where that one left off...Mike is heading off into the wastelands and Reggie is pinned to the ceiling by a bunch of silver spheres.

The story has Mike once again trying to stop the Tall Man and Reggie trying to catch up with him. This time we jump through space, time and dimension to find the Tall Man's origins and get a glimpse of the future he has in store for the earth.

This is a fairly good installment but it seems like there's more story then fits into the ninety-minute format. It sort of reminded me of Stephen King's Dark Tower series and I think would have been more fun if there was more time to explore some of the story lines hinted at. But if you're a fan of the other films, there's no reason not to check this one out.