Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.0

Nemesis 4: Death Angel 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.

While Nemesis 3: Time Lapse and this film share the same supposed release year (1996), as Albert Pyun gets into in some of the supplementary material included on this release, he actually shot Nemesis 3: Time Lapse in tandem with Nemesis 2: Nebula, which came out in 1994. That may account at least in part for how different some elements of this third sequel are, both in terms of general content, but also in terms of more basic aspects like the appearance of Sue Price as Alex Sinclair (see writer-director Alex Pyun's kind of surprising analysis of that particular situation in the supplements section, below).

This film has none of the dual time frame elements of its predecessors, and instead is resolutely set in the future, where kind of weirdly the whole human vs. cyborg "thing" is kind of shunted off to the sidelines to find Alex as a "cybernetically enhanced" assassin who unfortunately takes out the kid of a major gangster. While in no way as stylish or frankly brutal as John Wick, there are certain similarities between the two properties as Alex finds herself the target of other assassins. If not at John Wick levels, this third sequel arguably does have a bit more style than the two previous efforts, but it's another lo- fi affair that certainly exhibits the law of diminishing returns.

Nemesis 4: Death Angel Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Nemesis 4: Death Angel is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of MVD Rewind Collection, an imprint of MVD Visual, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.17:1. This is probably the best looking of the three Nemesis films included in this collection, with a rather nicely burnished palette (though one that does tend to skew slightly towards orange at times). A surplus of close-ups supports good fine detail levels on things like facial pores and even some of the make-up some of the characters sport. What I'm considering were traditionally composited effects can look a bit rough at times, with less abundant detail and a grittier appearance. As with its two predecessors, the outdoor material in this film tends to look the best, and primaries in particular in those scenes pop extremely well. My score is 3.75.

Nemesis 4: Death Angel Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Nemesis 4: Death Angel features an LPCM 2.0 track that provides capable support for the film's dialogue and almost nonstop use of wind effects. There are other sound effects that dot the track, including things like helicopter rotors or gunfire, and those all reverberate with sufficient force as well. There are some minor sync issues, which I'm thinking might be due at least in part to some post-looping. There are no problems with regard to distortion, dropouts or other damage.

Nemesis 4: Death Angel 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 4: Death Angel Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Nemesis 4: Death Angel is probably the most competently produced and shot (and maybe even acted) of the three films in this set, but it's so divorced from the original concept that it's almost hard to see why it was marketed as a Nemesis property. Technical merits are generally solid for those considering a purchase.