NEMESIS 5 (2017)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

The nicest thing I can say about the long-delayed (and entirely unwanted) sequel to Albert Pyun's NEMESIS series is that as bad as it is, it isn't as atrocious as the latest sequel to the TRANCERS franchise. But yes, NEMESIS 5-- whose subtitle THE NEW MODEL doesn't appear in the streaming version I saw-- makes any of the first four films seem competent by comparison. 

The first film is alluded to once again, even though it's only loosely related to the (often haphazard) continuity of films 2-4. All of these stories focused on the character of Alex Sinclair, played by the female bodybuilder Sue Price. That continuity, such as it is, involved a future society in which cyborgs sought to usurp human society. A resistance movement, allied to but not identical to a group called the Hammerheads, created the fetus of a super-warrior, implanted it in the womb of a volunteer, and sent the volunteer back to the 20th century, so that baby Alex would grow up to become warrior Alex, who at some point would birth a warrior race. The cyborgs conveniently did not learn Alex's location in space-and-time until she was grown, but when they sent cyborg-assassins to the past to exterminate Alex, she destroyed her opponents. Pyun's final entry dropped the whole "mother of a new race" trope and sent Alex to the future somehow, where she became an assassin who went around nude quite a bit.

The prologue for NEMESIS 5 does provide a loose overview for the Pyun films, but the script from first-timer Mike Reeb inverts the setup. Now the conflict is not between a cyborg conspiracy and a resistance movement made up of humans and good cyborgs, but the Los Angeles police department (though no cops appear as significant characters) and the Hammerheads, who are now more or less a group of conspirators. I think their plot is to make the L.A cops look like murderous extremists so that the Hammerheads can take  control, but this isn't spelled out well.

Sue Price re-appears as Alex for just a few scenes, training the new heroine in town, Ari Frost (Schuylar Craig). Ari is neither a cyborg nor a muscle-girl, but she has a few scenes fighting Hammerheads with her martial skills and a ray-gun. However, the fight-scenes here are as undernourished as every other aspect of the flick. Since fight-scenes were the major appeal of the Pyun series, this is rather like making an entry in the TRANSFORMERS with no giant robots. 

There's one source of amusement: when Ari goes after one of the Hammerhead bigwigs, she has to take on a busty blonde cyborg. Poor as the fight is, it's amusing that the cyborg's name is "Barbarella"-- though given her modest resemblance to Pam Anderson, calling her "Barb Wire" might have been more on target.

Though the NEMESIS series was not even close to being a favorite of mine, I sincerely hope this dimestore piece of crap is the last attempt anyone makes to revive the franchise.