So here we are at the final film in the Lexx series before it was picked up for a full series. Giga Shadow
is just as strange as its predecessors (!) and yet introduces some new ideas
that would eventually carry over into the show.
With Kai’s (Michael McManus) protoblood running out and
Zev’s (Eva Habermann) libido going into overdrive, the crew of the Lexx make
the decision to return to The Cluster in order to get the supplies they need to
survive. What they find is the Giga Shadow, a gigantic insect with the essence
of His Divine Shadow, ready to devour the universe.
Okay, so this supposedly epic finale just so happens to be
the weirdest film of the bunch. It’s also slightly disappointing with how silly
it ends up getting with the introduction of Squish, Kai’s pet cluster lizard
that is obviously a hand puppet and the goofy way the Giga Shadow is taken out by
it at the end. This one also ditches the crew of the Lexx a few times to focus
on the turncoat cleric Yottskry, played by special guest Malcolm McDowell, and
his quest to stop the Giga Shadow from being born and his accidental
participation in its rebirth. Whenever the film moves over to Yottskry it
screeches to halt and becomes so damned boring that I wanted to turn it off and
make myself a sandwich. There are a lot of awkward tonal shifts as well with
the plot going from a dark horror thriller to a full out slapstick comedy at
the drop of a hat.
The acting this time around is a mixed bag. The major cast
members all do their best to sell the craziness going on around them, but
unfortunately a lot of the time they fail miserably. Habermann is especially
awful here. She looks like she is through with this series and would rather be
anywhere else, which turned out to be true since she left the show two episodes
into the second season. Michael McManus’s Kai is made out to be the comic
relief this time due to his relationship with Squish. It’s sad since he’s
the most interesting character of the bunch and has been reduced to kissing a worm puppet as if he were its mother. Brian Downey
is good as usual regardless of the strange places his character is taken over
the course of this flick.
I did and still do find it immensely amusing to watch
Malcolm McDowell in this film. He alternately looks dead serious and completely
confused for the entire runtime. I’ve seen in interviews that he said he was
baffled by the script and thought it was the strangest
thing he’d ever read up to that point. It shows in his performance, which I
think is very unintentionally funny in a good way. At least it looks like he’s
trying to make sense of what’s going on and sell his character, but making that
happen is just out of arm’s reach.
The biggest mistake made by the filmmakers is the inclusion
of the characters of Smoor and Feppo, played by Andy Jones and Michael Habeck.
They are so annoying and were obviously added into the mix to pad the runtime
and give Stan something to do other than look constipated on the bridge of the
Lexx. The whole molestation sub-plot is lame and unnecessary; serving as yet
another overtly sexual idea the writers thought would be interesting but ends
up being nothing more than an unnecessary distraction.
Director Robert Sigl attempts to keep the flick moving at a
brisk pace, but more often than not it collapses under its own weight. Writers
Jeffrey Hirschfield, Paul Donovan and Lex Gigeroff pile too many sub-plots into
their script to the point that things become muddled and mildly confusing. They
rush to the epic conclusion with little regard for the audience’s ability to
keep up. While I like the visual panache on display at times and the quirky
sense of humor, this one just goes for broke and tries to be too many things at
once.
While I don’t find this final film in the series to be
nearly as enjoyable as the first two (I
Worship His Shadow, Super Nova),
it’s definitely head and shoulders above the nearly unwatchable third film (Eating Pattern). It’s the middle ground
one that serves to basically set up the ideas behind the full season of
episodes that followed and attempt to wrap up the His Divine Shadow plot from
the first film.
Giga Shadow is watchable, but it’s a mixed bag that doesn’t always
work. But hey, it’s still Lexx.
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