Oct 062000
 
two reels

Danyael (Dave Buzzotta), the half angel child of Valerie from The Prophecy II, is shot and then rises from the dead, stronger, but driven to an unknown goal. The angel Zophael (Vincent Spano) intends to stop him while Gabriel (Christopher Walken), now human, plans to protect him.

Well, I guess that epic, chill-inducing second war in heaven from The Prophecy didn’t really matter.  Instead, we’ve got a new angel, not part of Gabriel’s war, who is going to rise up and become a god (or God) unless Danyael stops him. What happened to the war in heaven? It was still going on in The Prophecy II? Did all those angel just get tired and good home? And if Pyriel is going to be the new god, shouldn’t he be a bit tougher than a half breed?

For most of The Prophecy 3 there is one angel. Not exactly epic. This Zophael has the power of jumping over fencing and confusing people about money. Not exactly the villain that Gabriel was.  But then, this isn’t exactly a good film.

Spano comes off as a cross between a street tough TV cop and a low budget serial killer, but not an other-worldly being. Buzzotta is a rabid Scott Baio (is there anyone, anywhere, to whom that sounds intriguing?) and Kayren Butler plays Maggie as generic girlfriend number seven. Make that stupid generic girlfriend number seven as she drives Zophael to stop her boyfriend after he gives her his persuasive speech that the attendees of an insane fanatics convention would find over the top. I suppose she could be said to be under angelic influence (though it doesn’t play that way), but when she decides not to help, why doesn’t she just slow down the truck instead of speeding along after poor old Danyael?

Unlike the previous films, there’s no humor. There is a minimal attempt, by repeating gags from the other films (such as the angel not knowing how to drive), but they aren’t funny anymore. Jokes don’t work well the second time around, and Spano doesn’t have Walken’s delivery.

As for Walken, who was the saving grace of the previous film, he’s barely in this one. I’m guessing they had him on set for two or three days, tops. No longer the powerful adversary, he’s now a poorly-dressed man with bad hair extensions.

When it isn’t one long chase, The Prophecy 3 is a tiring explanation of the previous films. There’s multiple, long, unnecessary (as who is watching this who skipped the first two?), and awkward exposition scenes, with Zophael chatting to Gabriel, and the coroner chatting to the girlfriend.

If I pretend that this has nothing to do with The Prophecy, then it is just barely watchable. The perching is still a sight and the androgynous Pyriel (Scott Cleverdon) cuts quite a figure. He oozes evil. It’s not much, but it’s enough to stop me from switching channels, provided nothing interesting is on.