When Left Behind II ended, I was excited to see how the next chapter would play out. Sadly that joy was crushed along with my interest in whatever happens next with this film series.
Although Kirk Cameron is the star of the series, as Buck Williams, the third installment gives all the spotlight to American President Gerald Fitzhugh, played by Lou Gossett, Jr.
The world is about to break out in nuclear war, and there appears to be only one man who can stop it, Gerald Fitzhugh. The only problem is that according to the scripture, you can’t kill the antichrist, so they spend the entire movie building up a task force to kill him. People can really be stupid sometimes.
This movie was my least favourite of the three. I have a feeling since this movie bombed, producers never revisited the series again. Even with an Academy Award winner like Gossett, Jr. in the lineup, they were unable to secure the victory at the end.
What probably turned a lot of people off was the big confrontation at the end, which resulted in perhaps the worse CGI experience of the three movies. There may be some fake explosions and firefights throughout the film, but nothing quite like the finale.
Another thing to point out is the change of actors with pastor Bruce Barnes. Initially played by Clarence Gilyard Jr., he didn’t return for the third installment, so they cast Arnold Pinnock in the role instead. The magic of the character from the first two was gone. The believers are exposed to the plague, placed on Bibles, another low point in the story. Lucky for Clarence, he didn’t have to suffer through that.
Someday I may read these books (16), even though they seem like a huge undertaking. For now, I’ll live with the film series and wonder how close the writers stayed to the subject material. This ended on a sour note and should a significant studio ever decide to look into it again, I am sure there are some really fascinating stories to tell. 2/10
Ten Stars or Less 