Scanners 3

Christian Duguay directed in 1991 "Scanners II: The New Order", that same year he directed a third part, "Scanners III: The Takeover". The second film was amazing but this third part is weak, some good acting and gore, interesting scenes but the film is not that good, the comedy used in some moments is stupid. The script could be better. "Scanners" and "Scanners II: The New Order" are great films, but "Scanners III: The Takeover" is not good but not that bad either.

Let me start out by saying that this is a wonderful film. When I rented this movie initially I thought that it was going to be one of those low budget action films with awful special effects, terrible dialogue, terrible plot and gratuitous nudity (like the highlander movies). I was dead wrong.

Scanners III is a wonderfully cerebral film, chock full of allusions and references to American folklore, popular science fiction novels of the past century (i.e. 1984 and just about everything by Michael Chricton), Huey Lewis and The News song lyrics (I've got a brand new drug) and the religion and philosophy of the Algonquin Indians. What an analytical treat!!

As the iconography in this film suggests, American culture is dominated by the media, the pharmecutical companies, and cheap dares we do to impress girls on Saturday nights. We are soulless zombies, only acting on impulses that have been passed down to us by our parents. If we only used our heads (as Alex Monet does in this film (monet is an obvious reference to the french impressionistic artist...there are many more delicious reference-goodies in this gem!)), we could overcome the social and mental chains that are hindering us from developing as a society.

The film is beckoning us to cast away homburg hats and black suits of the nineteen forties for more casual clothing, eschew hot concentual sex with busty mental-hospital nurses for passionate lovemaking with loved ones, to send christianity and all of western society to the junkyard and take up Tibetan Buddhism, the only religion that has the capability to give one enough strength to overcome one's weaknesses. In no way is this film just another sequel to David Cronenberg's far inferior film Scanners. This is a treatise on how to live life successfully. I urge you to watch it immediately.

Scanners were the offspring of women that were given a drug during pregnancy. They had severe mental and emotional problems, but one great power: the ability to blow someone else's brains up if you pissed them off. I did not see Scanners II, but by number III they not only got the ability to use psychokinesis, but to control others actions--even over the television.

One brother went to a monastery in Thailand to learn to control his powers, while his father gave his sister an experimental drug that gave her the same powers instantly (but for only 24 hours while wearing a patch). She becomes power mad and uses them to take over her father's drug company and next the world?

Her brother finds out about his relatives deaths and returns. His sister has released a bunch of drug enhanced Scanners as hit men to prevent his displacing her.

The final battle reveals which approach is stronger--it is not as straight forward as you think.

Just like in Scanners (I), not enough of what scanners were famous for--blowing up heads. How expensive can this special effect be anyway?

This movie is not a bad waste of viewing time and the sister is not hard on the eyes -- one brief nude scene in a hot tub.

Of the five "Scanners" movies that have been made to date, "Scanners III: The Takeover" is the least of the series. That is not to say that it isn't fun to watch; if you like B movies, this particular one does have some entertaining elements. It's pretty well made for what was a low budget, there are some pleasing splatter moments here and there, and the core of the story does have some intriguing idea that had potential. However, the actual execution of the story does have some unsatisfying aspects to it. Even though the movie runs only 95 or so minutes, you can really feel the padding; it didn't have to run as long as it did. The expansion of the powers of the scanners gets downright silly and unbelievable at times, even though this is a B movie. And the occasional attempts at humor run all over the map, ranging from being low key effective to downright embarrassing. If you liked the other entries of this series, you'll probably find enough to enjoy here, but you'll still think that the screenplay (by four writers!) should have had some serious rewrites before filming started.

Opening with a Christmas party in which a scanner shows off his powers with unexpectedly tragic results, this second sequel to David Cronenberg's 'Scanners' begins on a chilling note. Things only get more interesting as one of the party guests soon has to use her scanning abilities to fend off muggers, which results in massive headaches (having avoided scanning in so long) with a possible cure in an experimental nicotine patch style of sorts. After this promising start though, the plot soon derails as the patch as the side effect of turning her into a homicidal megalomaniac, similar to Raoul Max Trujillo in 'Scanners II'. Lead actress Liliana Komorowska manages to chew the scenery even more so than Trujillo though in such a wildly exaggerated performance that it is draining to watch. There are also a host of ill-defined supporting characters who inexplicably wear sunglasses all the time (to stop accidentally scanning??) and as she manages to control others through television sets, her powers end up more fantastical than pseudo-scientific as in the first two films. 'Scanners 3' does, however, deserve some points for presenting a more original plot than Part 2. There is also quite a bit of humour in the mix (forcing an obnoxious date to dance; waking up in a morgue) and the special effects are uniformly excellent, but this is a hard film to get excited about.