Following on from 1992’s guilty pleasure Nemesis, Albert Pyun’s cyber-opus staggers forward as a muscle-bound female protagonist takes the mantle from walking sideboard Olivier Gruner. This time around, Alex (yes, same name, different character) is less cyber-enhanced and more genetically enhanced (blame Jurassic Park). Having been flung into the past by her protective mother, Alex grows up with an African tribe and struggles to come to terms with who she is as she’s being pursued by future cyborg assassin, Nebula (played for the most part by John Wick director Chad Stahelski). Several hundred explosions later and Alex is thrust into Nemesis 3, where she discovers that she is not alone and that her sisters are in the future, waiting for her. Apart from the ones that are in the past. Or something. Sadly, not even a returning Tim Thomerson can help them figure out the meaning of that plot. Finally, Nemesis 4 has literally nothing to do with any of its predecessors, aside from the return of Alex (girl version, not boy version) who has taken to wandering around New York – which now looks like an Eastern European city – completely naked and having sex with cyborgs before killing them with her cyber nipples.
That Pyun had to deal with ever-reduced budgets is understandable and ultimately forgivable, but his loss of focus and vision for a story that he initially seemed so passionate about, isn’t. Nemesis 2’s only unique trait is its muscle-bound female protagonist and her accompanying backstory. Sadly though, it isn’t enough to sustain it for 90 minutes. It will come as no surprise when watching Nemesis 2 and 3 back-to-back, to discover that they were filmed in the same way as they look almost identical (only with less production value as most of the money was spent on 2, much of which is relived ad nauseam through laboured flashbacks in 3). The fourth film (shot in five days while Pyun was reshooting another feature) is pure exploitation dross and serves as an incredibly flat end to a concept that had some promise, despite its budgetary restrictions. That the fan-film-esque Nemesis 5 wasn’t included with this release was frankly a relief.
The transfers across the board are impressive, with each film arriving in its intended format ratio. Pyun also lends his voice to some short commentary audio across all three films, although each is steeped in anecdotes about the shoot rather than his narrative decisions. There’s some interesting stuff in there, especially his acceptance that Nemesis 4 was literally ‘one for the money’. That along with Trailers for each movie comprises the only added value, which is no surprise considering all three films are squashed onto one disc. Nice retro packaging again from MVD though.
NEMESIS 2, 3 & 4 (1995 – 1997) / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY ALBERT PYUN / STARRING: SUE PRICE, CHAD STAHELSKI, TINA COTE, TIM THOMERSON, BLANKA COPIKOVA / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
