Nemesis 3: Time Lapse Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.0

Nemesis 3: Time Lapse Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 15, 2020

Note: This film is available as part of Nemesis 2 / Nemesis 3 / Nemesis 4.

If Nemesis often played like a B-movie version of Blade Runner (with, as my Nemesis Blu-ray review mentioned, just a hint of RoboCop at times), Albert Pyun’s several follow-ups ended up reminding me, if only in passing, of any number of other notable science fiction film and television properties, including everything from The Terminator Anthology, The Phantasm Collection, Orphan Black: The Complete Series and even Ghost in the Shell. That may suggest a certain undeniably patchwork ambience to many of these low budget offerings, but Pyun often stages things surprisingly well, all things considered. All three films in this set feature Sue Price starring as Alex Sinclair, and it's kind of interesting to note that among Price's few other credits on IMDb are Nemesis 5: The New Model and the probably not so coincidentally named RoboWoman.

If Nemesis 2: Nebula had certain unmistakable similarities to a certain Ah-nold enterprise, it's perhaps salient to note that Nemesis 3: Time Lapse actually presages some of the ideas in Orphan Black, at least with regard to Alex (Sue Price) suffering from a kind of amnesia and only slowly becoming aware that she has a horde of so-called "half sisters" awaiting a reunion with her. That said, this second sequel is almost a ridiculous "shaggy dog" story, as a large portion of the film is given over to a flashback exploring what led to Alex's memory troubles, but then, after supposedly resolving that, everything is just pretty much (no pun intended) forgotten, as if the whole film was simply a bridge to get to the next installment (which it may indeed have been).

This is another obviously low grade effort that suffers from some goofy special effects and performances that may not be quite ready for prime time. That said, the typically reliable Tim Thomerson is at least intermittently fun as Alex's main, um, nemesis.

Nemesis 3: Time Lapse Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Nemesis 3: Time Lapse is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of MVD Rewind Collection, an imprint of MVD Visual, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. While this has a more generally consistently apparent grain field than in Nemesis 2: Nebula, resolution can be a bit variable, with some sections (notably the opening effect shot) looking pretty rough. There also some kind of peculiar looking anomalies that I'm frankly not sure are due to either inherent compositing weaknesses or some flaw in the transfer, as at circa 13:30, where there's what almost looks like "ghosting" or refraction from a damaged lens in terms of the join line between mountain peaks and sky in the background. Pyun once again utilized blue a lot, both for flashback scenes but also for other interstitials, and fine detail levels ebb noticeably in those scenes. As with its direct predecessor, this film pops rather well in the brightly lit outdoor moments, where the palette is very nicely suffused and detail levels are generally very good. Also as with its predecessor, some animated material here looks upscaled.

Nemesis 3: Time Lapse Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Nemesis 3: Time Lapse features an LPCM 2.0 track that offers good support for the film's dialogue (such as it is), synth drenched score and a pretty ubiquitous use of sound effects. The film is littered with quick cut flashbacks that are often accompanied by jolts of effects, and dynamic range is nicely wide. I noticed no issues whatsoever with regard to distortion, dropouts or other damage.

Nemesis 3: Time Lapse Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

MVD Visual has packaged this with all three films on one disc. The disc's bonus content includes:

• Albert Pyun Talks Nemesis 2: Nebula (480i; 30:38) is the first of three similar quasi-commentaries which offer Pyun offering audio background and assessment as scenes from the film play, though his comments are not always (or even) scene specific. He gets into some of the kind of interesting challenges he set for himself in this film, including intentionally not having any tracking or dolly shots, something that led to an undue number of new setups every day. He also discusses the casting and some of the other production issues. The title of this piece has an kind of weird Über in it on this supplement, which makes me think perhaps this was done for some German language release, though Pyun's commentary is in English.


• Nemesis 2: Nebula Trailer (1080p; 1:49)


• Albert Pyun Talks Nemesis 3: Time Lapse (480i; 17:00) is another audio commentary by Pyun which plays to snippets of the film (and this one, too, has Über in it. Pyun talks about filming this in tandem with Nemesis 2: Nebula, and he is of the perhaps debatable opinion that this film has more plot to offer than Nemesis 2.


• Nemesis 3: Time Lapse Trailer (480p; 1:49)


• Albert Pyun Talks Nemesis 4: Death Angel (480i; 19:37) follows suit with the two others commentaries in this set, with Pyun offering comments that play to scenes from the film. He talks about what sparked this entry in the franchise, and how Sue Price's face had changed, which Pyun chalks up to bodybuilding drugs!


• Nemesis 4: Death Angel Trailer (480p; 2:11)

Additionally this comes with a folded mini-poster.

Nemesis 3: Time Lapse Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Nemesis 3: Time Lapse spends the bulk of its running time supposedly solving a "mystery", only to ultimately say, a la Gilda Radner's memorable Emily Latella character on the old Saturday Night Live, "never mind". Technical merits are generally solid for those considering a purchase.