Stars:
Marc Singer, Robert Englund, Michael Ironside, Jane Badler, Michael Durrel, Faye
Grant, Richard Herd, Thomas Hill, Peter Nelson, David Packer, Neva Patterson,
Andrew Prine, Sandy Simpson, Blair Tefkin, Michael Wright, Denise Galik, and
Dick Miller
Writers:
Brian Taggert, Faustus Buck, Peggy Goldman, and Diane Frolov
Based
On A Story By: Lilian Weexer, Faustus Buck, Diane Frolov, Peggy Goldman, Harry
Longstreet, and Renee Longstreet
Created
By: Kenneth Johnson
Director:
Richard T. Heffron
Feature
length: 267 minutes
Languages:
English Monaural Sound
Subtitles:
English Captions and Closed Captions and French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese,
Bahasa, Thai, and Korean Language Subtitles
Packaging:
Gatefold
Chapter
Stops: 25/23/26
Sound:
Monaural Sound
Year
of Television Broadcast: 1984/DVD Release: 2002
Home
Video Distributor: Warner Home Video
MPAA
Rating: Not Rated
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
After
the television ratings success of “V” in 1983, Warner Brothers produced a
sequel miniseries that aired on NBC in the spring of 1984. “V: The Final
Battle” was also a television rating success and inspired a television series
that aired for about on season between 1984 and 1985. Afterwards the franchise
survived on a very limited basis through syndicated reruns of the two original
miniseries and the TV series as well as through books and merchandising. In the
late 1980s and early 1990s there were rumors of “V” returning to the
airwaves as a syndicated first run TV series, but as far as I am aware that
never happened. Kenneth Johnson, the creator of the original miniseries “V”
did not play a role in the production of “V: The Final Battle” though most
of the cast from the original miniseries returned for “V: The Final Battle.”
Picking
up a short time after the events of the original miniseries, the resistance lead
by Mike Donovan (Marc Singer) has moved into an abandoned industrial area
somewhere in the inner city of Los Angeles. Despite a few hit and run attempts,
the resistance has been largely a failure because the visitors use technology
that is all but impervious to the ordinary armaments of the resistance. So they
decide to risk an all out attack on international television and successfully
expose the visitor’s supreme commander to be an alien reptile, however the
victory is short lived and the resistance is driven to an abandoned railway lot
in the Hollywood hills where they hook up with mercenary named Ham Tyler
(Michael Ironside), whose personal experience and dubious pass make him an
unlikely, but vital alley for the resistance.
From
this point on the miniseries attempts to resolve as many of the subplots left
open from the original miniseries, such as the visitor’s attempt to harvest
all of the Earth’s natural resources, including humanity, the birth of the
first interstellar species hybrid, Donavan’s crusade to get his son back, and
so on. At times the miniseries is quite unintentionally funny in particular the
hybrid twin birth sequence is a hoot, but for the most part “V: The Final
Battle” is pure sci-fi entertainment and is meant to thrill kids and
kid-in-heart more than anything else. There are a number of elements that quite
honestly are totally ridiculous such as how “visitor” public enemy number
one, Mike Donavan is able to walk around public places or even aboard a visitor
ship and barely be noticed because he ducks his head ever so slightly.
We
are also asked to believe 50 gigantic saucer shape ships could not find the
secret resistance base despite superior alien technology. We are even asked to
believe that humans can pass themselves off as visitors by using a device that
modulates their voices. Since we are never formally told if these are indeed
cold blooded reptiles or some hot blooded hybrid, how can we possibly not think
that the visitors could not detect a human from a visitor just by body heat
sensitive infrared scanning. I also found it funny how it is easier to get
onboard one of the visitor starships than it is to break into someone’s house!
Why do the visitor’s still where their human makeup in places where no human
is ever supposed to see them anyway? How often do they need to change their
costumes? I mean no living creature can survive indefinitely in a complete
bodysuit and no bodysuit has an indefinite wear and tear to it regardless of
where it is from and if it was indestructible, then why can the resistance tear
away at it to reveal the true face of the visitors? Also much like
“Independence Day,” 50 saucer shape larger than the New York City Subway in
low hovering orbit within the Earth’s atmosphere would cause catastrophic
gravimetric disturbances as to cause the visitors an almost total victory
without a shot ever being fired from either side.
Last
summer Warner Home Video released “V: The Original Miniseries” to DVD-Video
and this summer they are releasing “V: The Final Battle” in a similar
fashion as a two disc set containing two DVD-10 discs with three of the single
layered sides containing a complete part of the miniseries. Disc one has parts
one and two with a running time of approximately 93 and 96-minutes respectively.
Disc three contains the final part, which has a running time of about
86-minutes. There are no extra features on the flip side of the second disc
though if you do attempt to play it you will see 76-mintes of the Warner
Advanced Media Outlet logo, who were responsible the mastering of this two-disc
set. The gatefold is somewhat glossy with scene selection information pasted
within and the discs covering the eyes of a reptilian visitor unmasked. It fits
in perfectly with the snap case packaging of “V: The Original Miniseries” in
size and really look good together in a library.
For
the first time ever, Warner Home Video is presenting “V: The Final Battle”
in a matted widescreen aspect ratio that has been enhanced for 16 by 9
televisions. Some images contain a fair amount of grain, but overall this is a
fine transfer and probably as good a home video release for “V: The Final
Battle” we are likely to see for some time. The English Monaural Soundtrack is
quite full sounding with a good use of the subwoofer and the soundtrack is free
of background noise and analogue hissing. English Captions and Closed Captions
for the hearing impaired and French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Bahasa, Thai,
and Korean Language Subtitles are encoded on to both discs as options.
This
is a bare bones release with no extra features aside from a cast and crew credit
list. The menus are standard interactive still frames with some of the cheesier
music from the miniseries’ soundtrack playing in the background. All of the
interactive menus for the three parts of “V: The Final Battle” are identical
and easy to navigate.
If
you bought the first miniseries you have got to buy the conclusion and at a
suggested retail price of only $24.98, which means you can buy it at retailers
on and offline for less, this is an easy purchase to recommend for fans. Maybe
we will see the complete TV series next summer? “V: The Final Battle” will
debut on DVD-Video from Warner Home Video on Tuesday, August 5, 2002.
©
Copyright 2002 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
Click Here To Read The DVD Review Of "V: The Original Miniseries."