Okay, so the first sequel sucked and this was a straight to video sequel released only a year later, which doesn't exactly fill me with a shitload of hope for it being any better...but let's not start on a negative, okay?
It isn't really until you think back over the events of Trancers III you start to realise a hell of a lot of it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense and the stuff you think does, starts to create an army of plotholes and problems for the series if you think about it too long, it's a real 'just roll with it' kinda movie. Just know that despite everything Lena and Jack's marriage fails, isn't that lovely? The trancers universe has androids in it now, who look a lot like Power Rangers villains, cool? The trancer war has finally arrived in the future, despite Whistler I & II being dead, so where are these t-...okay, whatever, roll with it. Either way, shit ain't looking good in the future, so they devise a plan, send Jack back to 2005 and stop trancing from ever being created! Eventually Deth gets caught and captured by the programme and gets the trancing steroid injected into him, making it a battle not just physically, but mentally as he fights off the trancing desperate to take hold. Shooting ensues and they all live happily ever after. The end?
Never losing sight of the heavy romance focus these films have always had, we find out that in 2005 Lena is remarried and has a child. Once again though, I can't help but feel the Trancers series drops the ball on an epic, emotional moment. I mean I know for Lena, thirteen years have passed so she has probably gotten over it to some extent but she still doesn't know what has happened to Jack at this point, so when he turns up on her doorstep, she must at least feel relief in the closure? And Jack was willing to give up his home and the most important person in the entire story for Lena, so to arrive at her place to find her remarried and with a kid...I just wanted more reaction, I know he's a hardass pulp noir cop but I just think this lacked the emotional weight it deserved. It has more punch as a plotpoint, than as an actual scene. It makes it even worse that they don't skip a beat to basically force all the romance back onto Alice and Jack, who are basically back together again at the end of them movie, more out of principle than anything else. It just felt shoehorned and lifeless. I mean why are you okay with this Jack, are you just rebounding? This just feels out of character, urgh!Deth Lives is basically a reboot of the trancing concept, but uses time travel to weave it into continuity. Trancing apparently began in 2005, as a drug that turns human beings into the Hulk, basically. They look drastically more monster like than the trancers have in either film previous when they max out. Trancing also now works in states, each state makes you more powerful but also each state is much harder to control than the last, also it is only when you get to stage ten in trancing that you yourself can control the trancing, before that it is activated through the use of a steroid. There is also a totally new angle on it, no psychics this time (although Col. Daddy Muthuh may as well be Whistler III with how much he overacts, even despite his truly insane name) - these guys are soldiers and they are the elite of the elite, using trancing to make them faster, stronger and take more hits. Sadly however, they never really do anything with it, I think we only see a Stage Ten once and that scene is largely throwaway - I had assumed since they bothered to introduce an android at the start, that it'd lead to some big android VS Stage Ten brawl at the end...it doesn't, Stage Ten's have no real impact on the climax of the film and neither does the android.
The pacing for Deth Lives feels much more focused, because Deth has a clear mission, there is this backdrop of impending doom with the dark future to keep things moving too and a much heavier emphasis on action again all with a much shorter running time, it doesn't feel rushed, but it definitely feels tighter and slimmer and that makes for a much more enjoyable watch.Deth Lives gets the tone right too. Why was Returns so goofy? You don't really realise just how wrong II was until you watch this one, this one just gets everything right, it feels like a proper sequel, it is a bigger...badder...meaner Trancers and that is fucking awesome. There is a noticeably greater amount of violence, blood, fbombs, sex and boobs - and that is exactly what a series like this needs. No complaints from me, then. Thankfully as well. the action feels a lot more fluid this time and is a lot more imaginative than it was in Returns.
Deth Lives is quite possibly the best put together part of the franchise yet as well. There is still some noticeably shoddy camera work and some pretty tacky sets and props but I didn't notice quite so many continuity errors, visible boom mics and the likes this time around, so well done for almost looking like a proper production this time!So do I recommend it? Deth Lives, in the end, works almost in the complete opposite way Trancers II did in that it's all brilliant until the last ten or so minutes where the whole thing falls apart. I mean don't get me wrong, it has a very classic Trancers ending, but there are a lot of new elements in this film that made what would have felt like an otherwise exciting send out, fell oddly flat and dull. The biggest disappointments have to both be Shark and Stage Tens. Namely that they are two super cool ideas and neither of them are used. What a waste. I don't want to end this on a downer, as I really liked this film and would argue this is actually way better than even the first Trancers movie, that I loved, but it's difficult to come away from this without feeling like there could have been more here.
Think About It!
-Locke
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