Trancers was a very enjoyable B Sci-Fi flick. The sequel was rather poor, and left me questioning the wisdom of making the movies into a franchise. However, Trancers III made me rethink that.
Trancers III reunites us with Jack Deth, a cop sent to 20th-Century Los Angeles to protect the future. In this brief installment, Jack is temporarily brought back to his own time to find that things have gone terribly wrong in Angel City (though no one seems to call it that in this movie for some reason). He is then sent back in time to 2005, to try and destroy the project that originally created the titular Trancers; humans turned into killing machines.
Charles Band appears to have wanted to amp up the action in this movie, I think it had more shoot-outs than the first two movies combined. However, it fell into the trap a lot of movies (especially Sci-Fi movies) do. The bad guys had worse aim than a company of Star Wars Imperial Stormtroopers. It sort of takes the wind out of an action scene when one guy is able to take on foes who outnumber him 10 to 1 and walk away without a scratch.
One thing that I was pleased by was the main villain in this movie. I won't give anything away, but I will say that he was the more complex than the bad guys in the previous two films. He had motivation beyond the typical Evil Overlord Megalomania used by lazy screenwriters.
Jack Deth didn't toss off one-liners quite like he did in the original film (and the one at the very end felt rather forced), but Tim Thomerson nevertheless was enjoyable to watch. The cameos by Helen Hunt (who by this point was on Mad About You) and Megan Ward were nice touches, as well.
The internal logic of the movies always seemed non-existent to me, and this one was no exception. I get the feeling Charles Band was more or less making up things as he went along, as there was little continuity in the movie. But, that's true of the series as a whole, and if you're willing to ignore such things, then you should get a good deal of enjoyment out of this movie.
