Tremors 4: The Legend Begins - A Beginning and Potential End to the FranchiseAfter the third installment of the Tremors franchise was panned by fans and critics and the TV series greatly underperformed, it was time to start over. Creators decided to take a step back and start the series somewhat fresh by expanding the lore and giving a more solid reason why Graboids were in Perfection, Nevada. Tremors: The Legend Begins takes place in the Wild West. On paper this could have gone a lot of ways, most of them bad. The creators were able to pull together a decently finished product, however.
Once again the story of this film is rather simple. Miners are driven out of the, currently named, Rejection, Nevada. Mysterious deaths have caused the mine to close and as such driven most of the community away, leaving the town in a dying state. The remaining townspeople hold out with the hopes that the mine's owner can help them solve this problem and get the town back on it's feet. The mine owner, played by Michael Gross, appears and they discover the worms that have been eating the miners. From there it is a race to figure out how to defeat the worms before the townsfolk are eaten and the town and mine are lost to these beasts.
Like the ones before it, the story is simple and this is moved along more by the characters than plot events. Hiram Gummer, Michael Gross's character, is a far cry from the gun-toting survivalist that fans of the series know. Instead Hiram is a wealthy man who only wants to reopen the mine to get his money back. Even though the main motivations are greedy and could easily lead the way for him to be a villain, the movie never takes the obvious stereotypes too far. It is discovered after some interesting character moments, that Hiram Gummer actually has a fairly decent reason for being so gung-ho about the mine and over time comes to respect the townsfolk and the hardships they have. Hiram may by a snobby brat at times, but his character development is real and he always has a good heart.
This rule does not just hold true for Hiram, of course. Black Hand Kelly, Billy Drago, is a hired gunman brought to Rejection to help assist with the killing of the worms. Kelly is built up as a wild and menacing scoundrel but is actually very honorable and practical. Again, it was easy to make Black Hand Kelly a villain, but he is very neutral in this. Kelly is paid to do a job and does everything in his power to do that job, even teaching Hiram how to properly shoot, to the best of his abilities, once he recognizes the threat. I could go on like this for a lot of characters honestly. At the end of the day, all of the characters are well enough defined and stereotypes are never taken too far.
The creatures in this movie are only ever seen in two forms. The classic graboids, which in this movie are referred to as dirt dragons, are the primary threat. At first though, we get a view of the infantile state of these worms. Basically imagine a small graboid with an armored carapace to protect it's skin till it mature to a full graboid. Honestly I have no problem with that at all. It continues the trend of having a new evolution in every movie without going too far into the realm of silly and stupid. Everything you see seems believable to some degree.Much like the second movie, Practical effects are in full force with some CGI enhancement for a few scenes. The worms look as good as they did in the first and second movie and the babies are pretty creepy and well designed.
This movie is very good, and in many respects better than the second movie. This prequel comes closer than any of the sequels, to date, in really capturing the heart of the original movie and why the first movie worked as well as it did. A simple story driven by well defined characters, character interactions that make them seem like a family and very good looking and well utilized creatures. This film was the actual much needed step back the franchise needed before going forward. Tremors: The Legend Begins is a good movie and easily my second favorite Tremors movie, now that I had a chance to look back on it.
Unfortunately this movie was only released on video and after the third installment and a failed series not many were excited to see another Tremors movie. The film went so unnoticed and performed so poorly in stores that the plug on future projects was effectively pulled. No new Tremors movies were made for over 10 years. This is really sad considering how well the movie actually is. The series worst movie is immediately followed by one of it's best movies. Imagine my overwhelming surprise and caution when the next instalment came out of nowhere.
Tremors 5: Bloodlines - It's all in the familyI don't know if I am alone in this or not, but I recall no marketing for this movie at all. I discovered this movie at a local Walmart completely by accident. After a long bewilderment of trying to comprehend how this movie could exist, I immediately put it on my Christmas list. After receiving 3, somehow completely unique, versions of the movie, I proceeded to watch it with no real expectations. While the movie is certainly different from every other Tremors movie (so far), It wasn't that bad. The one thought I really left with after watching it is "Well that was a fun movie".
The story of this movie is a bit more complex than the previous films. Burt Gummer, Michael Gross, has his own survivalist television show. People seem to really like the survival instincts of a man who tangles with Graboids for a living. The show isn't doing bad but things change his new cameraman, Travis Welker, shows up. Travis is played by Jamie Kennedy, which is one thing I did not know how to feel about when I saw the cover. Following the arrival of Travis, a mysterious man named Erich Van Wyk, Daniel Janks, shows up. Erich informs the pair that Ass-blasters have appeared in Africa, despite no party understanding how. Once they arrive, they discover it is not just Ass-blasters but a very large and very different Graboid is there as well, all of them protecting, what is believed to be, the last Graboid nest in Africa. From here it is standard story of fighting the Graboids and Ass-blasters.
This time around, the story is not driven by the characters most of the time. Instead, it seems many main plot events are circumstantial and happen on their own. For a chunk of the movie it feels Like Burt and Travis are in the backseat of this Graboid Safari. When they are in the Driver's seat, they do a fairly good job. Nothing phenomenal, but Burt Gummer is still how one would expect him and Travis Welker is actually very smart and helpful. Travis was so close to being another Melvin or worse, another Grady Hoover. Travis manages to prove his resourcefulness by proactively investigating the shady people around him and helping Burt on the field as much as he can. Unfortunately the supporting cast does not stick out that much. Everyone is doing there own thing most of the time so I don't know who I should be worried about. While this is really only a problem in the last third of the movie, it still feels really disjointed and you begin to really on worry about Burt and Travis. The film at least knows this and brings it back to them as much as reasonably possible.
The creatures themselves, like the third movie, are almost entirely CG. Unlike the third movie, The CG is actually pretty good and FINISHED. The creature effects are actually very well executed and used in great effect in dark and rainy areas. Yes, it's a cost saving measure to make CG easier but burying the puppets to hide imperfections was also a cost saving measure in the other movies so I see no problem. Execution is not the problem that I can see people having, but rather the designs may seem a bit too different.
The idea is that the Graboid like from this region adapted to a different flatter ecosystem with course sand, dirt, clay and small rocks abundant. Since the ground is tougher the Graboids have to have thicker skin. The Graboid in the movie is much bigger than the previous ones we've seen with more spines, thicker skin and an odd musculature. While it sounds like a stretch, I am fine with the Graboid. The design I have a problem with is the Ass-Blaster. Frankly this creature looks a whole lot more threatening and original than the ones in the third movie, but something seemed off. The problem was that it doesn't really look like an Ass-blaster. It looks like a whole new creature not connected to the Graboid line. It's not bad but it is, arguably, overdesigned and too different.
I said the movie was fun but that does not translate to "good". Technically this is the second worst Tremors movie, but I don't think that is a fair title. The third movie was an extremely low bar this film was fun and easy to watch, despite it's flaws. While the film did feel disjointed at times, most of the time it kept focus on the right characters. While most characters failed to stick out or connect, the ones that did left a very good impressions. It is easy to point out the flaws in this movie but it is still very watchable and pretty good. I recommend any fan of the series give this one at least one watch. If nothing else, it is MUCH better than Tremors 3.
The Future of Tremors
To be a fan of this series is to come to terms with the fact that, in all likelihood, a movie of the same quality as the original will never come. After the release of the 5th movie it is safe to say that the homely simplicity of the stories is out the window for something different. The direction the series seems to be taking is basically Burt and Travis globe-trotting and stopping Graboids wherever they pop up. Looking at it realistically this was inevitable. There are only so many times you can have a movie in the same town.
I expect the 6th movie to be of similar quality as the 5th one. If the series can move forward a fun, but flawed, series of monster movies then I will be okay with that. I don't expect to relive the magic of the first movie but after how surprisingly good the 4th one was, anything is possible. I am the Kaiju Kidd and I will continue to enjoy this series with high hopes.
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