I won’t even bother to beat around the bush with this one. Phase IV just isn’t a movie for me. Never having seen the movie before, I went into my viewing of the new Blu-ray release from Olive Films feeling pretty optimistic. The premise is pretty cool and ants are disgusting and creepy, especially when you see them up close. They have those little antennas that move around, it’s gross. Despite having these good building blocks in place the movie never really came together for me. Simply put, I was really bored.
In Phase IV different species of ants begin to work together to form one large cohesive group. Their plan is to seemingly take over the desert that they inhabit. Two scientists, Dr. Ernest D. Hubbs (Nigel Davenport) and James R. Lesko (Michael Murphy), set up a lab of sorts in the middle of the desert and begin experiments on the ants. Their goal is to figure out what is causing this and how can they stop it before it’s too late. Along the way they rescue a girl (Lynne Frederick) who is being attacked by the ants.
This sounds awesome, right? Killer ants teaming up to form one giant killer ant army?! Where do I sign up? Like Kent Brockman I’m more than ready to welcome our new insect overlords. Hail ants! Phase IV gives us none of that. Instead we get super long segments of watching ants close up wander through tunnels. It’s like you’re watching a Discovery Channel documentary or something. And that’s totally fine if you’re watching a Discovery Channel documentary. Phase IV is a scifi-horror-thriller, or so I thought. I want excitement. Give me ants attacking!
Is that not a reasonable request? It’s not like I’m asking for giant ants either. In fact I didn’t want giant ants because we already have those via Them! I just wanted lots of ants, I’m talking hordes of them, attacking people and things. Coming into this movie I was anticipating Kingdom of Spiders but with ants. Wouldn’t that be rad? Missed opportunity if you ask me.
Phase IV was directed by Saul Bass who was primarily known as a graphic designer who worked on some of the most famous title sequences of all time. The man did title work for the best of the best, working with Hitchcock, Kubrick and Scorsese to name a few. Phase IV is the only feature film he directed. Interestingly enough the film doesn’t have any title sequence. We have a few graphics here and there throughout the film, but no traditional credits. My guess is that Bass wanted to show he had more in him than just an ability to craft wonderful titles.
Evening without title credits, the opening moments of Phase IV are far and away the best parts. In fact the opening is really, really cool which unfortunately makes you more disappointed when the rest of the film doesn’t live up. There are about 9 solid minutes that kind of explain the story and what is going on with the ants. This does feature some of those extended Discovery-like sequences but they work in these moments because it’s setting up the story. After this the rest of the movie just goes downhill.
As far as the actual Blu-ray release goes it’s ok. There’s nothing in the way of special features. It’s just the movie and nothing more. As much as I love special features the lack of them is never a deal breaker for me. They’re bonus material so if they’re there great, but if not that’s ok. For the most part the film looks pretty good but I think it’s a little soft. It’s certainly not bad at all, but not spectacular either. It’s acceptable. That’s the best way to describe it.
Personally I cannot recommend Phase IV. It was just far too boring for my taste. I’m sure there is an audience out there that enjoys this thoroughly, but I’m not part of it.
Phase IV is available now on Blu-ray from Olive Films.
