Tremors 4 movie review

Here's what you need to know; the tiny town of Rejection, Nevada looks doomed to become a ghost town after a massacre at the local silver mine. Not happy with the mine's closure, it's owner, Hiram Gummer visits the town to oversee its reopening, only to be greeted by an unimaginable enemy that now comes for him and the few that stayed in the doomed town.

Elephant in the room, this is not a sequel to Tremors 3, in fact it's set in 1889, it's marketed as a prequel, but in many ways, I don't think that's a fair label to stick on this film. First up, this film has a very good introduction, showing us the massacre in the mine and not being afraid to get a bit gory, it sets the tone just as well as the intro's to Tremors 2 and 3 did, and that this is definitely a less silly film than 2 or 3, particularly 3. This being set in a different century to all the other films, you get a completely new line up of characters, so how are they. Time for the second elephant in the room, they still got Burt in this film, but his name is now Hiram, and he's, at least at the beginning, a very different character to Burt. While Burt was a hardcore survivalist with an unhealthy obsession with guns, Hiram is a rich, privileged businessman who's never held a gun in his life, and that element of his character creates some interesting friction with him and the rest of the town, who haven't lived a life even remotely as comfortable as his. As the film progresses, Hiram changes, becoming more liked the hardened Badass that actor Michael Gross played in the previous 3 films, which is very cool to see, and while he comes across as just a rich arsehole, there is actually more to his character that's explored here, and I really like that. Juan, one of the miners who survived the massacre, and the first character we meet in this film, is also pretty good, while he's not as deep as Hiram, and not remotely as interesting, he's very much like Rhonda from the first film, coming up with schemes to outsmart the Graboids and figuring out their tactics, and when the big throw down you know is at the end of this film comes, he's a badass. Christine and Tacopa are similarly good, but for different reasons, both of them are more interesting on their own, Christine is a more central character to the story with Hiram, while Tacopa is just cool, bringing up his heritage and speaking of his people's legends of spirit demons, unlike China, I wish there was actually a bit more of that, but we'll get to China. Black Hand Kelly has a more minor role, but in this line up, he's where things start going down hill, he's a cartoon, a gunslinger in all fashions, donning all black and armed with lingo like hog leg and lead pushers and jingling some spurs, the over the top gunslinger nature of him is just odd, and it does detract from both his character and the film over all. And Finally we have the Changs, 1 of which, Pyong Lien, I actually do like, when he talks about China, he has the highest comedy to annoying ratio, Lu Wan and Fu Yien are, however, pretty annoying. Lu Wan doesn't shut up about China, and that's not hyperbole, like Black Hand Kelly, it's stupid, Fu Yien is the most wooden character in the film, and it can get really annoying at times just how flat he is, more so as we're supposed to care about these people, and with the youngest one of all of them, he's probably the one you care about least. And as a specific example of how wooden he is, I refer you to the execution of the line "ok, it's done."

This being set in 1889, it's labeled as a prequel, but it really isn't one, there's practically nothing relating this film to the original Tremors, I don't see this as a problem, in fact I'd say it's good, it allows this film to stand alone from the rest of the series. However, what does relate them, in a very flimsy way, is a few really odd coincidences. Like there being a Gummer in this film, and for that matter not 1, but 3 Changs, the Changs I can kind of understand, the market running in the family, eventually being passed down to Walter from the first film, but Gummer makes very little sense when you look at it from any other angle than they needed Michael Gross in this film, I like his character a lot, but it does seem really, really, coincidental, in fact distractingly so. And there are some things in this film that just don't make any sense, 2 in the last 10 minutes of the film that, while really cool to watch, kind of fall apart as you think about them. But there is one thing in this film that I love, and that is the Graboids, no Shriekers in this film, or Ass Blasters, just Graboids, which is something I am very glad to see. And the Graboids are really cool in this film too, showing their intelligence in a way they haven't since the first film, and first appearing as babies in a really cool scene. Something else that is a massive improvement over Tremors 3 in particular is the special effects, while the CG is still not the best, it's used a lot less frequently, and the props look far more organic and convincing here, which is, again, a massive improvement. The first 3 Tremors films all ended in a climactic final duel between the surviving humans and the Graboids/Shriekers/Ass Blasters, and this film is no exception, having a really cool battle at the end, a battle that contains 2 of the already mentioned things that don't make sense, but you don't notice it in the moment, it's just cool, but others in the film are less forgivable, for example a wrecked wagon, and a single shot involving a wooden bridge, simple little things that are just head scratchers, they're nit picky, but they do distract from the film overall.

This is a more serious film than Tremors 3, making it harder to have fun with this film when it abandons reason, but what works here really works, Hiram Gummer is great, Juan, Christine and Tacopa are all good, but the film's characters has a darker side in the sillier and more annoying characters like Black Hand Kelly and the Changs. But it's a very refreshing return of the Graboids as the primary threat, and the improved special effects are cool to look at. And the battle at the end is really fun, if at times nonsensical. All in all though, I appreciate this film for going in a different direction and taking it back to basics, I like the new setting, me being a bit into Westerns. I like about half of the characters, and I love the finale. Which means I would definitely recommend Tremors 4, worth a watch.