Always actively made an effort not to show any bias against any genre (likewise with towards too) in order to be fair-minded. Horror is no exception, do prefer other genres myself but have always appreciated it. The horror genre boasts its fair share of classics, old and new, and there are characters that are horror icons and deservedly so. At the same time, there are a number of misfires, low budget and not.
Watched the 'Wishmaster' series as part of my horror franchise completest quest and the films happened to pop up in my recommended for you and more like this sections. The first 'Wishmaster' was entertaining and watchable, but don't really consider it a particularly great, or even particularly good, film, while absolutely understanding why people like it. The second film was lacklustre and had a lot of faults, but was still the best of the sequels which is saying a lot. The third film in nearly all senses was abominable, with the least bad asset being AJ Cook and she went on to do much better things.
Despite saying before that the franchise got worse with each sequel, on reflection now consider 'Wishmaster 4' a little better than 'Wishmaster 3'. Then again a lot of things are better than 'Wishmaster 3'. This at least doesn't have charisma-void Jason Connery and it is a little more eventful, if too late into the film. It is still very bad, with most of the flaws of the previous film still standing, if a little less badly, and also with new ones. It felt rather soulless and at the end of the day it misses the point of not just what the title of the film promises but also of the whole franchise.
Regarding the redeeming qualities, the leads' acting is marginally better than that of Connery's in the previous film.
The story is a little less over-stretched and uneventful than the previous film. In regard to both of those, that is not saying much, as the acting is mostly patchy from the cast and the story execution is pretty poor.
One of 'Wishmaster 4' biggest problems is that the first act really drags and takes too long to get going, actually it is rather aimless. The film early on is also too repetitive and there are scenes that go on for too long and the scenes themselves feel like padding. There is far too much emphasis on the seduction scenes, which are not really all that sensual, the nudity also being far too much and gratuitous. 'Wishmaster 4' does pick up slightly in the middle, but suffers from a complete lack of tension and suspense, it's still not very interesting and gets sillier and sillier. Then there is the final act which is ridiculous beyond belief. The character development is pretty sketchy and none of the characters are likeable. On top of that, there's the character of The Hunter, did not see the point of him at all, he also was one of the main reasons for the silliness and the film does very little with his character or story.
Many of 'Wishmaster 3's' flaws are present here. John Novak is still terrible as Dijinn, there is just no menace in Novak's interpretation or any dark humour, he is just goofy and comes over as incredibly irritating above all else. Plus his look has to be seen to be believed and that is not meant in a good way. There is a drab and chaotic look to the production values and the special effects are last minute-like. The dark humour is replaced by an overload of cheese, there is never anything suspenseful or creative, the action is more silly and tired than exciting and the wishes are pretty dumb again, the creepiness and humour gone. The climax is beyond moronic and the very end feels incomplete. Nothing is darkly humorous, original or suspenseful and mostly not interesting, and the direction lacks distinction and confidence.
Summarising, very poor third sequel but a marginal improvement over the third film. 2/10
Watched the 'Wishmaster' series as part of my horror franchise completest quest and the films happened to pop up in my recommended for you and more like this sections. The first 'Wishmaster' was entertaining and watchable, but don't really consider it a particularly great, or even particularly good, film, while absolutely understanding why people like it. The second film was lacklustre and had a lot of faults, but was still the best of the sequels which is saying a lot. The third film in nearly all senses was abominable, with the least bad asset being AJ Cook and she went on to do much better things.
Despite saying before that the franchise got worse with each sequel, on reflection now consider 'Wishmaster 4' a little better than 'Wishmaster 3'. Then again a lot of things are better than 'Wishmaster 3'. This at least doesn't have charisma-void Jason Connery and it is a little more eventful, if too late into the film. It is still very bad, with most of the flaws of the previous film still standing, if a little less badly, and also with new ones. It felt rather soulless and at the end of the day it misses the point of not just what the title of the film promises but also of the whole franchise.
Regarding the redeeming qualities, the leads' acting is marginally better than that of Connery's in the previous film.
The story is a little less over-stretched and uneventful than the previous film. In regard to both of those, that is not saying much, as the acting is mostly patchy from the cast and the story execution is pretty poor.
One of 'Wishmaster 4' biggest problems is that the first act really drags and takes too long to get going, actually it is rather aimless. The film early on is also too repetitive and there are scenes that go on for too long and the scenes themselves feel like padding. There is far too much emphasis on the seduction scenes, which are not really all that sensual, the nudity also being far too much and gratuitous. 'Wishmaster 4' does pick up slightly in the middle, but suffers from a complete lack of tension and suspense, it's still not very interesting and gets sillier and sillier. Then there is the final act which is ridiculous beyond belief. The character development is pretty sketchy and none of the characters are likeable. On top of that, there's the character of The Hunter, did not see the point of him at all, he also was one of the main reasons for the silliness and the film does very little with his character or story.
Many of 'Wishmaster 3's' flaws are present here. John Novak is still terrible as Dijinn, there is just no menace in Novak's interpretation or any dark humour, he is just goofy and comes over as incredibly irritating above all else. Plus his look has to be seen to be believed and that is not meant in a good way. There is a drab and chaotic look to the production values and the special effects are last minute-like. The dark humour is replaced by an overload of cheese, there is never anything suspenseful or creative, the action is more silly and tired than exciting and the wishes are pretty dumb again, the creepiness and humour gone. The climax is beyond moronic and the very end feels incomplete. Nothing is darkly humorous, original or suspenseful and mostly not interesting, and the direction lacks distinction and confidence.
Summarising, very poor third sequel but a marginal improvement over the third film. 2/10