Tremors 4: The Legend Begins Review

Tremors 4: The Legend Begins premiered on the Sci-fi channel on January 2, 2004. As always, we begin with how the movie was advertised. The trailer to this film was a vast improvement on the Tremors 3 trailer, however that does not mean it was a good trailer. The narrator is very distracting. It's demanding menace from the vocal actor as opposed to the visuals that are actually shown.

As for the film itself, it's a lot better than Tremors 3, I'll give it that. The character development ROCKS in this film. Watching Michael Gross take Burt's great-grandfather from a man who can barely stand up for himself to being the gun loving man we know in Burt was fascinating and it was all to save his friends. What an accomplishment! For the first time, it seems like the main character has an ark. You can argue that Val has an arc in Tremors, but it's definitely not as profound or big as Hiram's in Tremors 4.

We're back to primarily puppetry, which is a vast improvement over Tremors 3 and the TV series as well. Puppetry makes movies like this. I can almost guarantee that it's much easier to forgive an outdated anamatronic creature that's physically there on set than to forgive outdated CGI. Think about it: compare the effects in Jaws compared to Jurassic Park. Case and point. The other great thing about going back to primarily puppetry is that the franchise owners actually listen to their fans...imagine that.

Now for the negative: trying to make the grabboid scary again is a very hard task. That creature has been so overexposed it's unbelievable. The TV series didn't help it's scare factor either. This film does an admirable job, but it doesn't quite make the cut. Also, a major problem for the film, aside from Burt not too many other characters actually change. The film's biggest offense is that it's an incredibly boring watch. The focus on the main character puts less focus on the creature. The fact that we know about the creature and how to defeat it and that we have to sit and watch these characters rediscover it, it just doesn't flow for a series like Tremors that was so much smarter in their first two entries.

Here's another major problem: the actors on the making of say that this is the first graboids. That completely contradicts what was set up in the second film saying that they were Precambrian, or thousands of years old. Wow, great job writers! Another problem is that there's no surprises in this film aside from how Hiram acts and that gets old very quick.

Tremors 4: The Legend Begins got better reviews than the third movie, but it wasn't successful enough to warrant another entry. To date, this is the final entry in the Tremors franchise. There for a while was to be a rumored fifth installment, but that died. Stampede Entertainment, the makers of the films even took down the IMDB page of it.

This final film is ok, better characterization, worse creature feature. It depends on what your cup of tea is ultimately. If I wasn't a die hard, I would stop after the second film.

Tremors: The TV Series Overview

Tremors: The Series aired their episodes incredibly out of order. The episodes were aired like this: 1, 6, 7, 3, 9, 4, 8, 5, 10, 12, 13, 11, and finally 2. This screwed all the chances of the TV show ever succeeding. It was truly a nice addition and continuation to the first three movies. The TV series aired from March 28,2003 to August 8, 2003. The series laid dormant for a number of years, but then finally after a lot of patience from fans, the studio brought the TV series out on DVD. The DVD was released on March 9, 2010. It was also the first time that the series was presented in it's proper episode order, a true plus for fans. For Tremors fans, the truest collector's item to find has been the 13 episode TV series and now finally people can experience it the way it was meant to be seen. Tremors: The Series was short lived, only because the Sci-Fi channel aired the episodes out of order, truly a shame. Fans should be rejoicing for now the complete Tremors phenomenon is available to own!

Tremors: The Key Review

The Key originally aired on July 25, 2003. I was really torn with this episode before I watched it. I was psyched that the TV show was coming to a close, but I also felt really sad. This was the last time I would ever watch something Tremors related for the first time. It was a weird experience. Michael Gross again isn't in this episode. What's especially interesting about the series finale is how many questions are left unanswered: what was the bat like creature in this episode, what will Larry do with the key to the $20 million, will they ever find the lab, and how many more mutations could there possibly be in Perfection? It was bittersweet. I was so ready for it to end and I'm very glad that I finally got around to watching the TV series.

Tremors: The Sounds of Silence Review

The Sounds of Silence originally aired on July 18, 2003. Another new creature is introduced in this episode and it's nasty. A bug infestation is really scary and creepy to me. Also, the huge explosion at the end, it's the best thing we've seen since the end of Tremors II: Aftershocks. This is the first Tremors thing to not include Michael Gross. It was very strange, but oddly enough the episode worked fine without him, hahaha. It's a little jarring not having Burt, but refreshing in the same way.

Tremors: Water Hazard Review

Water Hazard originally aired on August 1, 2003. This episode added yet another new creature. It was a little odd that the creature was a dinosaur shrimp thing, but hey, what else could be new in Perfection? This episode was a great watch though. What was bad, however, was the camerawork during the attacks. It was so confusing and jumbled. It was just bad. It may have been meant to be like that, but I just don't like that kind of camerawork.

Tremors: Graboid Rights Review

Graboid Rights originally aired on July 11, 2003. It's always interesting to see old characters return. It's always a joy to see what the writers are going to do with Mindy. How she's grown from being a small child to a college activist, it's amazing. She's become one of the smartest characters they've ever written. I did find it strange that Nancy felt sorrow if the graboid died. I found it odd from all of them. They wanted all of the graboids to die at the end of the first one. Have they forgotten how dangerous these creatures are??? This was an ok episode. I mean, it did add to the Mindy character, but it's still nothing great.

Tremors: Flora or Fauna Review

Flora or Fauna originally aired on April 18, 2003. This episode did add something else to the Tremors mythos. It amazes me how much scarier each time these new creatures are than the ones they originally came up with. These creatures are nightmarish, truly. This was another great episode. There was a reference to the first movie. Fred's severed head now becomes a part of the mugs in Chang's. Making the image of an actual person's severed head a part of your merchandise I find truly sickening and bizarre. I don't know what this TV show's trying to get at, but it's very strange. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I might miss the TV show when it ends. The charm of television has done wonders for this series. It's amazing how much it added to the storyline.