Dead or Alive: Final

I guess it's for the best that this Dead or Alive is the final one, because it's not great. Though to be honest, I feel like this whole trilogy is one where only a single film is good. I didn't love the first one, dug the second, and then found this third one a bit tedious.

I thought it would have a little something going for it thanks to the sci-fi elements, but you forget it's set 300+ years in the future for the most part; it's really just a few establishing shots where it feels futuristic. Otherwise, Miike just slaps a yellow filter over all the outdoor scenes Breaking Bad-style and calls it a day.

The action is so-so. At least it's short. And I laughed a few times at the saxophone guy. If there's one reason to watch the movie, it's the saxophone guy. He doesn't have anything on the saxophone guy from The Lost Boys (who does, to be fair), but he's still amusing.

Picks up again where part 2 ended with a summary and the end did remind you of the best parts of part 1 and 2 but this taking place in the future also takes the movie further away from the original script then ever.

The end scene is again one you will have a WTF feeling and the part were they are some kind of robots just didn't work for me. Again, as in the other two reviews this leans the best towards Yatterman (2009). But on the other hand we do have more martial art fightings then in the other entries. And the fact that girls are involved takes it also to another dimension. Still, not gory or creepy like most of Miiki's flicks. For me the best entry in the franchise but still not my cup of tea.

Gore 1/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 2/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

Out of the three in the trilogy, I'd say this is the second strongest. It starts with some very amazing action, but goes downhill from there. Thematically it's similar to the previous films, but the story and point of the movie get muddled somewhere along the way. The ending is quite nuts, and reminded me of TETSUO. By the way, did you know that the director of TETSUO played Ichi's father figure in Ichi The Killer?

The final installment sees Sho Aikawa and Riki Takeuchi (looking cooler than ever in his reversible overcoat!) pitched against each other for one last battle, this time in the future. The plot owes a lot to Blade Runner, but done in Takashi Miike's low budget, frenetic, comic style. I did feel that it was the weakest of the three DOA films, and although the ending was still outrageous, it lacked the shock value of the previous two. Compared to the likes of Ichi the Killer and Visitor Q, DOA:Final is nowhere near as extreme, but is faithful to the other two films in the trilogy. That said, fans of the first two (and fans of Miike) will get a lot from this as it ties all three films together and gives a final explanation of the relationship between the two protagonists.

In the last of a trilogy, Riki Takeuchi and Sho Aikawa are once again on the opposite ends of the spectrum, as they were in the first DOA, after being the best of friends in the second one. Riki is a cop searching for his son being held by a gang whom drifter Sho is a part of. Even though, if you think about it and put yourself in Miike's flow of logic, this ending film is inevitable in it's actions, it's still the less of the three. Of course no Takashi Miike film is totally without merit and such is the case here. There are a few setpeices that make it worthwhile, but the poetry I usually find in a Miike film is not found here (at least in the amounts that I usually expect from this director)

My Grade: C-