Director: Christian Duguay
Starring: Liliana Komorowska, Steve Parrish, Valerie Valois, Colin Fox, Daniel Pilon, Peter Wight,
Running Time: 104 Minutes
Certificate: 18
SCANNERS II: THE NEW ORDER was a nice little surprise, so surely this third instalment released the same year, with the same director and writer, would be another interesting take on the telekinetic warriors known as Scanners? You’d be wrong to think that. SCANNERS III: THE TAKEOVER is an appalling end to the trilogy, and one where it would be giving the film too much credit to even suggest that the hilarity one experiences whilst watching, is in anyway intentional.
It appears Duguay and writer B.J. Nelson put all their effort into Part II, because some of this film is simply inconceivable. You know you’re on to a loser when the opening crawl (an unnecessary opening crawl) claims some of the key events in the mythology took place in the 1940s, despite the fact the previous two entries made it clear the events took place in the 1950s. From there we are thrust into a plot that involves a female scanner (Komorowska) going crazy after trying a new suppressant drug. Her brother returns home from a self-imposed exile at a Tibetan monastery; which is where all 1990s heroes went after a tragic incident, and attempts to stop his sisters’ reign of terror.
Somewhere in there is the basis for another fascinating story, but the film instead gives us confusing and embarrassing moments. At one point Helena (Komorowska) forces a man to dance in a restaurant in a scene that is reminiscent of BEETLEJUICE. Taking us to Thailand gives us a nice change of pace, but it also gives us another bizarre scene which involves Thai kickboxers in a fight with a Scanner. Whereas the previous films hired actors that could show stern concentration on their faces during Scanner battles, this time the Scanners must whip their heads to add a bit more “action”, needless to say it simply looks ridiculous.
If it were truly aiming for a more comedic approach then we’d be able to forgive it. Unfortunately the film is just slapped together in a lazy fashion. It contains forced and heavy handed dialogue such as “I almost didn’t recognise her without her lab coat.” As well as a scene where there is a missing sound effect. When somebody is slapped across the face silently, it kind of destroys the illusion of cinema. Shoddy editing which presents continuity errors, and the worst effects of the series so far; are those marshmallows coming from his eyes? Mean that SCANNERS III: THE TAKE OVER is a huge step down for the franchise, and all the added T&A shots do nothing to make up for it.
SCANNERS III: THE TAKEOVER is released on Blu-ray 8th April via Second Sight. SCANNERS and SCANNERS II:THE NEW ORDER are also released.
