Profecía 3: El ascenso

Anti-God Danyael Rosales is a street preacher. He's also a Nephilim, half-human and half-Angel. Gabriel (Christopher Walken) is in the audience when he's gunned down by a blind assassin. Gabriel has to protect him as angel Zophael (Vincent Spano) comes to take out his heart. Joseph (Steve Hytner) witnesses Danyael's resurrection and tells his girlfriend Maggie about the ongoing battle.

This is undeniably straight-to-video B-movie. It's hitting the conventional beats. Walken is playing a good guy in this sequel, and it doesn't feel right. He doesn't have as much fun. This feels very conventional which is a bit of a letdown. This franchise has been rather messy and chaotic. Through it all, there is Walken. This one is less messy, and Walken is less fun.

Great! I liked it! It made up for the disappointing second part. Even neatly tied up some of its loose ends. In retrospect you might even believe that part 2 was a brave underachiever that failed to deliver on purpose, because it was only meant as a bridge between 1 and 3. But let's not get carried away.

Christopher Walken driving in a beat up convertible through the desert, playing the trumpet. Need I say more?

Well the third part of the installment is enjoyable. It has some weaknesses, but overall I didn't mind watching it.

The Weaknesses: No recognizable angelic names in it (with the exception of Gabriel). The bad guy (Zophael) is a total no-name, so you don't really know how to rank him (powerful/not powerful), which wasn't really a problem in the first part. There you knew that Simon was more powerful than Uziel; that Gabriel could beat Simon's ass; and that Lucifer could smack them all to hell in a handbasket.

Funnily this works to advantage for the movie as you don't really know which side of the factions Zophael and who actually is the good/bad guy until somewhat in the middle of the movie.

The actors aren't all that good (with the exception of Walken, Spano - who brings that charisma back to the angels that was so severely lacking in the second part- and the Coroner who has grown to be one of my favourite characters in the three movies)

Strenghts: The storyline is closed. I won't argue that it's the most coherent storyline, but it at least makes some moderate sense in itself. The musical score has always been one of the big things about the trilogy and they kept it -wisely- unchanged for the most part. This time around we have more funny scenes and even some jabs at the original 'The Prophecy', while not making it campy and keeping all the good bits (fights, heart ripping, supernatural powers etc.). Some of the moves seem very Matrix-like, but that was already the case in 'The Prophecy II', so I don't really know who copied from whom (It just seems so similar: Humans fighting against some overly powerful and nigh unkillable opponents in cool long dark suits). No matter: It's fun to watch. This time we also don't get treated to some candy sweet religious thing in the end, where the main character suddenly becomes a devout Christian - that's a big plus.

Overall, I'd recommend seeing this film. Best if viewed together with the other two or you will not get many of the references.

7/10

The Prophesy 3 was somewhat disappointing but still an above average flick. I would say it is the least of the three movies. The finale did not seem to be worth making a trilogy about. Plus it is somewhat confusing what happened at the end. The scope of the first two films led me to expect something grander. On a positive note, the special effects in this installment were the best of the trilogy.

The pace was a little stop-and-go for my taste: too many flashbacks and too long between the action. The humorous parts were funny but at the same time it undermined the atmosphere that the series is based on.

Christopher Walken again stole the show. He has perhaps the best delivery of any actor and can manage to handle lines that should have never been in the script. The two costars I thought lacked screen presence (or at least compared to Walken).

Overall, this was an enjoyable ending to a surprisingly good trilogy.

First, let me say that I loved the first film in this series. I liked the second one; but after seeing the third, and how it ties things together from all three films and completes the tale, I love them all.

Make no mistake, the second and third film change the direction of the story told in the first one quite dramatically. In fact, many items that were throw-aways from the first film come back to become rather important details once the three films are put together.

In this trilogy we see the fall, redemption, rise and ascent of Gabriel as one of the generals in God's Army. And Mr. Walken is at his best for all three films.