The Final Conflict (1981) Reviews

• Damien comes into his own.

  saruman22004-02-02

  In the first two Omen films, we were presented with a boy learning to adjust to his unusual personality and his future position in the destiny of the cosmos, but in this last film, Damien is in complete control as he prepares mankind for a " paradise of pain. " Sam Neill exudes a aura of amoral humanity, befriending a female reporter and her son while he seeks to defeat God; One very good sequence has Damien describing man as being naturally evil, claiming that God seeks to keep man from becoming truly innocent. Even though the atmosphere bounces from materialistic to spiritual, the film still gets a powerful message about corporations and their link to politics to the audience. Again, Sam Neill shows us a flawed, but arrogant man-beast, who pushes his way through without a backward glance. With such a performance, it is no wonder that Sam Neill is a great actor.

• Third part of the 'Omen trilogy' with an excellent Sam Neill as Damien

  ma-cortes2009-01-14

  This second sequel to huge hit 'Richard Donner's Omen (Gregory Peck, Lee Remick)' centres on anti-Christ personified by Damien (Sam Neill) . Now grown-up Damien (as a teen was incarnated by Jonathan Taylor) is the only proprietary of Thorn industries , one time deceased his forested parents (William Holden , Lee Grant from Omen 2 by Don Taylor) . Damien is named American Ambassador to London by the US President (Mason Adams). A group of monks (Rossano Brazzi , Tony Voguel , among others) get the seven daggers , as Damien Thorn can now only be murdered by one of the daggers . In England Damien is helped by an assistant (Don Gordon) and he falls in love with a TV journalist (Lisa Howard) . The film talks, fundamentally, about the rebirth of Christ and confrontation to anti-Christ Damien . The devilish Damien is poised for ruling over earth supported by his underlings . This exciting follow-up contains thrills , chills , suspense ,tension and grisly killings . The chief excitement resides in seeing what amazing and creepy murders happen every few minutes of picture . The eerie scenes range from the genuinely fantastic to the bizarre and horrifying images . The movie is quite predictable but we have seen the previous chapters but also its predictability is redeemed in part by the charismatic acting by Sam Neill , the New Zealand-born player , and an effective secondary casting . Colorful and adequate cinematography by Phil Meheux (The Zorro) . Again evocative musical score by the great Jerry Goldsmith (Planet of apes) with soundtrack-alike first entry , winner a deserved Oscar . The motion picture was professionally directed by Graham Baker (Beowulf , Alien Nation) . Followed by an inferior television movie , Omen IV (2001) , and for genre addicts only , directed by Jorge Montesi with Faye Grant and Michael Woods .

• If you don't like the film, listen to the score.

  lampton1999-06-20

  A fairly good end to the trilogy, although it's a shame the threatened armaggeddon never comes off (as in the later novels). Sam Neill puts in a good performance as the Devil's son and is surrounded by decent character actors. However, how Jerry Goldsmith didn't win an Oscar for the score, I will never know. It's absolutely amazing and proves music really can improve a film (just imagine a score-less Psycho, for example).

• Damien pt.3

  kairingler2008-06-16

  This was great i think,, you have Damien all grown up,, not a kid anymore,, this is pretty cool i think,, now you have all that evil in an adult, which by the way is very scary, Sam Neill does a wonderful job in this, and is very creepy evil at the same time. Add to the fact that the plot was very good too,, you have the monks trying to kill Damien for one,, then you have Damien trying to kill all of the male babies born of the 24th of March,, makes for a very interesting race against time for Damien. If you follow the trilogy though the timeline is quite off, but i guess when they made the first one, they didn't realize it would become a franchise,, but nonetheless, over the past week i have watched all 3 of the Omen's and have seen the new one in the Theatre's when it came out,, i think the trilogy is very good with the story tied together the way it is, overall i give this part 3 a definite thumbs up.

• Wonderful!

  Cole_Early2007-06-23

  So far, I've given the "Omen" films straight eights, which is interesting. It's incredibly rare to find a sequel, much less the SECOND sequel, to be so good. The idea of the final ending of Damien Thorn was quite creative, and I'm very impressed with actor Sam Niel's accomplishment in fulfilling this part as Damien. It's most impressive, and, personally, I think the ending is rather... not as dramatic as it could have been. I think they ended it all too quickly, but all-in-all, the film is great. This series certainly hasn't lost it's touch, I'll admit. I suppose it's also very upsetting in places, since Damien is now an adult, in change of the Ambassador position after all this time, but even so, the film is very powerful, and very moving. Once again, the "Omen" series flourishes.