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Post by krakenslayer on Apr 7, 2014 11:24:12 GMT -5
Phantasm Phantasm III Phantasm IV Phantasm II
I seem to be in the minority in my love of III. I find people have a tendency to dwell on Timmy and the three crooks. IMO, Three hit the sweet spot for scares, humour, action, production values, and multi-dimensional weirdness. All the stuff with Jody leading Reggie across dimensions to rescue Mike was fantastic. All the elements I enjoy in a Phantasm film came together in the correct proportions in the third move. The fourth was great too, but had a much more depressing vibe - which is fine, these films are about grief, after all - and the samey locations, action and small cast (a factor of the smaller budget) made it feel a lot smaller and limited in scope than any of the other films, including the first. For me, it didn't make for a particularly satisfying final (at the time) chapter.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Apr 7, 2014 15:10:31 GMT -5
nothing beats the original, but i do love III. these days, it's the one i'll most often use to get my PHANTASM fix.
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Post by dosequisxx on Apr 8, 2014 1:34:46 GMT -5
I agree with both of you with love for the third one. It's the best of the sequels. It's the most jam packed with information. Questions are answered, yet more are posed. All of the characters are great (Yes, including Tim and Rocky). What other mainstream film can you see a kid kill zombies and handle a gun as skilled as Tim? I thought he was a great character. Rocky was just as resourceful, plus she was a woman of color, which was a first for these movies. My only criticism is it seems like the movie runs out of gas near the end with the three dead zombies continuing to pop up. Don didn't have 3 more friends available to pop up as zombies? But it's a small criticism to an otherwise solid, enjoyable film.
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Post by The Never Dead on Apr 8, 2014 7:31:15 GMT -5
Phantasm III Phantasm Phantasm II Phantasm IV
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Post by jjrakman on Sept 25, 2014 18:50:19 GMT -5
I IV II III
I like I the best for obvious reasons, and IV to me feels more like the first than any of the others.
Liz was misused in II to the point that she was really just a distraction, and I don't care for the home alone stuff in III.
Something tells me that there could be a way to cut the good parts of II and III together to make a single satisfying film out of it, although it would probably be a bit jarring to have two different actors play Mike without any explanation.
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Post by echorift on Oct 13, 2014 12:14:22 GMT -5
If we're going by favorites, I'd say:
Phantasm Phantasm III Phantasm IV Phantasm II
I put III second because it was my first NEW Phantasm movie, I became a phan just before it came out.
From a technical accomplishment/good film making standpoint, I'd go:
Phantasm Phantasm II Phantasm IV Phantasm III
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phanboy
Graver
Now this won't hurt a bit. Well, maybe just a little bit.
Posts: 180
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Post by phanboy on Oct 13, 2014 12:51:04 GMT -5
If we're going by favorites, I'd say: Phantasm Phantasm III Phantasm IV Phantasm II I put III second because it was my first NEW Phantasm movie, I became a phan just before it came out. From a technical accomplishment/good film making standpoint, I'd go: Phantasm Phantasm II Phantasm IV Phantasm III Hi Echorift. Welcome to The Phantasm Community
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Post by echorift on Oct 14, 2014 8:58:36 GMT -5
Hi Echorift. Welcome to The Phantasm Community Thanks! I've been a lurker for a long time, for whatever reason I decided to finally create an account yesterday!
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Post by einzige on Jan 9, 2015 1:23:49 GMT -5
Choosing my favorite is relatively easy - the original (and as I've said elsewhere, I'm not one of these people who dismiss all sequels as rubbish - most of my favorite films in most of the other major horror film franchises are sequels). And picking my least-favorite is also comparatively simple - Phantasm II, which, while still a fine picture, and a Hell of a lot of fun, is just a bit too linear, and maybe a bit too studio-compromised, for my liking.
It's choosing between the other two that's more difficult for me, as I think both are pretty much excellent, but also very different from one another.
On the one hand, Lord Of The Dead was my first Phantasm picture, so my appreciation for it might be clouded by nostalgia. But I genuinely dig it - I think it successfully blended the surrealist tendencies of the original with the Raimiesque action-horror of the first sequel. And it has a look all its own: a bit more overtly capital-G'othic', with visuals like the Tall Man sitting on a Hellish throne, or the revelation that the sentinel spheres contain human brains and eyestalks (a very Beastmaster- Like bit of imagery from Coscarelli there). On the other, whilst I liked Tim and Rocky, I did think the three thieves detracted a bit from the pacing of the movie.
OblIVion is very different, far less visually stylized than the third film but far moodier, death-like and dry. I love the sunbleached ambience of number four, and it's one of the few examples of a film that successfully incorporated flashbacks into its narrative flow. And I adore how symbolic the picture is: The scene in which Mike hangs himself in parallel to the Tall Man being hung in the past has certain mystical and occult references, both to the Tarot and to Odin hanging himself from a tree to gain wisdom (which in turn resonates with the Christ-story). However, it's a bit slow, and perhaps could have advanced the storyline further than it did.
I suppose mood and tone win out for me over eye-catching cinematography and art direction, so my list would look like so:
Phantasm OblIVion Lord of the Dead Phantasm II
But basically all the sequels are closer to being Jason Lives than A New Beginning, if you catch my drift. ;-)
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Post by Graver on Jan 12, 2016 2:29:55 GMT -5
Will be interesting to see where Ravager will rank for fans when it's finally here. I have a feeling it'll be my new third favorite.
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Post by einzige on Jan 16, 2016 2:41:12 GMT -5
Would it be fair to say that II is probably the casual fan favorite? I don't think that's true of the series' 'base' fans, but for general fans of cult and genre pictures, it seems like it gets the most appreciation in reviews for its similarities to the Evil Dead films.
Conversely, the hardcore franchise fans seem to prefer the cerebral tones of the first and fourth movies.
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Post by DustinM on Jan 17, 2016 23:20:07 GMT -5
Would it be fair to say that II is probably the casual fan favorite? I don't think that's true of the series' 'base' fans, but for general fans of cult and genre pictures, it seems like it gets the most appreciation in reviews for its similarities to the Evil Dead films. Conversely, the hardcore franchise fans seem to prefer the cerebral tones of the first and fourth movies. I think there's some truth to this. On a mainstream level, Phantasm II may be the most appealing series entry because it has so many ED2-esque elements. Meanwhile, P1 is a much slower film and P4... well, if you're digging P4 it's not for the action or the effects.
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Post by reggie on Sept 23, 2019 5:50:25 GMT -5
I - The original, the classic. My favourite film.
IV - I love the eerie atmosphere, the use of 1979 footage, as well as the development of Mike and the Tall Man. It feels like the calm before the storm.
III - A mix between the fun action of Phantasm II and the surreal aspects of the original. It's a good time.
II - I enjoy it, but it's not what I want from the franchise. Feels like it's mostly just redoing the same story with a different approach, and having the opening be a dream as well as the first movie just feels like Coscarelli trying to squeeze the "we kept going from the end of the first film" into this despite having to skip time to make LeGros' casting make sense.
V - Bottom of the barrel. Obviously the film looks terrible visually, but I can't relate to the heroes anymore due to all the reality switching. They're not the people I knew from the other films, and the end is anticlimactic. It's a bad movie, and a bad ending.
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Post by Kitty on Sept 29, 2019 4:30:12 GMT -5
PHANTASM I PHANTASM V PHANTASM III PHANTASM IV PHANTASM II
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