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· Year: 1999
· Also known as: Auton: Awakening, Auton 3: The Awakening
· Director: Bill Baggs and Patricia Merrick
· Writer: Arthur Wallis, Paul Webb
· Cast: Jo Castleton, Michael Wade
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| Series info |
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Part of the Auton series.
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| Synopsis |
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The Nestenes have Lockwood and will unlock UNIT's secrets if Doctor Arnold can't get to him in time. --Scarecrow
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RATING
Out of 100 |
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| COLD ANALYSIS |
| 1.25 -ATMOSPHERE |
| 1.25 -GORE |
| 2.0 -HUMOR |
| 2.5 -SCARES |
| 3.25 -TENSION |
A decent conclusion to the Auton series, but in no way as good as the previous installment. The orginal writer-director was unavailable for this part and it shows; the cleverness of the previous entries is pushed too far and is just confusing. However, despite this, we still get quite a good film.
The main selling point seems to be the special effects. After the Nestene created at the end of Auton 2 was well-received, the filmmakers realised the cheap but effective CGI they had access to. So in this installment, such effects abound; even the Auton weapons are now computer-generated and we see whole armies of the animated dummies. Sadly, CGI a good film does not make, and Auton 3 just doesn't give us the conclusion we were waiting for.
Still, the actors are excellent as always, and the plot does give us various scares and surprises. Old characters return and, at the final part, some favourites bite the dust. Bryonie Pritchard gets a larger role again and very much steals the show though some new members aren't the greatest actors.
Overall, this is still a good film, espesially by direct-to-video standards, but it really doesn't live up to the promise of the other two parts. Still, see it to end the trilogy and enjoy the actors' obvious talent.
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