The Prophecy 3: The Ascent

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.

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

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?

I was pleasantly surprised when I watched Prophecy III. After enjoying the first two immensely, I had expected the series to fall apart in its final installment. The third film, however, is a pleasure to watch, and not just for the incomparable Christopher Walken. Vincent Spano (Zophael) was excellent, and had great lines (especially in the donut shop scene, where he says "I'll take one of those...with the coloured fragments on top"). I thought Dave Buzzotta played a good Danyael (except near the end, when he seemed to get a little snotty).

My only complaint is that I don't think Christopher Walken was meant to have long hair...

In all a great sequel!

The third of the PROPHECY films and the last featuring Christopher Walken, although even so this one's a straight-to-video outing. The plot is fast-paced and has plenty going on, but at the same time it's quite simplistic and essentially involves the bad guys chasing the good guys around and them occasionally fighting. Quite small scale given the subject matter and a few CGI scenes don't really serve to make much of an impact either. Walken seems disconnected to the rest of the story but has some fun, the scene with him in the car probably being the best part, and there's a neat little turn from Brad Dourif too.