I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Who payed the critics

Good start, but then it gets ruined

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

I must have watched V: The Final Battle so many times, but I only caught onto it after friends mentioned the mouse eating scene in V the original mini-series. One friend openly wondered why aliens always aimed their mouth upwards when swallowing a mouse, rat or hamster but I guess whatever method it would do much to solve the New York City rat problem, and would no doubt be an election winner for any mayoral candidate.One of my favorite characters was Ham Tyler played by one of my favorite actors, Michael "Total Recall" Ironside. He put a lot of spine into the Resistance and played an instrumental role in the downfall of the aliens. Ham was the Man and it was good to see him continue in V: The Series.Also when I saw Robert Englund's name in the credits, I wondered if that was the same Robert Englund in Nightmare on Elm Street, released the same year???!!! It was!!! Willy was so different to Freddie big time, but that's a testament to Robert's incredible acting skills. I remember seeing an interview with Robert when he said that at an autograph session, many eager V fans turned up to meet him, and then a bunch of leather clad bike club type folks turned up and asked him to autograph their gear...they were Nightmare on Elm Street fans!!!

Despite the limited involvement of creator Kenneth Johnson, I found this to be an entertaining sequel to the original. Marc Singer, Faye Grant, and Jane Badler all return, along with Michael Ironside as ruthless mercenary Ham Tyler, who helps the resistance group continue its fight against the aliens.The stakes are higher here, since Diana is now facing challenges among her own ranks, as well as her superiors, but she will stop at nothing to achieve her ambitions of power. The Earth is still threatened by the 50 spaceships hovering above, but now the resistance has developed a biological weapon to use against the invaders, and decide to infiltrate the mother ship hovering over California.This has even more action than before, and is less cerebral than its predecessor, with an ending involving the "star child" that may leave you shaking your head in disbelief! Still, this is well-done otherwise.

V: The Final Battle is in three parts.Part one is about the mission to pull the face off the Visitor leader and the girl facing the fact that her babies father is a lizard. I really like this part one a lot...the build up on the mission to expose the Visitor leader on live television is really well paced and the structure is really very good...in fact, it is excellent. The girl having to go to the hospital is also really suspenseful. I think they did a very, very good job of this part one.Now, when you get onto part two...I feel that it is unfortunately really baggy in places...the momentum at times is really lost...the torturing for example is quite lengthy and not all that gripping. It's like extra padding to make sure you increase the runtime...bulking it up. Don't get me wrong I love bits of it a lot...I love the giant water pipe sequence where they arrive to take a look at it.The skydiving scene near the start of part three is a lot of fun...and the two babies story (to a point) I really like too...but I don't think I like what they eventually did with the girl sparkling / glittering at the end. I don't think that was necessary. The gun battles onboard the mothership are terrific and really well made / edited.Ultimately, this is a extremely problematic mini series...but it's one that gets off to a great start (I highly recommend part one)...once you get into part two and three this is where I have some major problems but still feel it has great bits sprinkled into it throughout.

The GREATEST mini-series of all time was, of course, the original V. I hadn't seen either in years, until they both started making the rounds on MPLEX. And if possible, both got BETTER with age. And I'll tell you what, Faye Grant is STILL quite the hottie. And with an unblemished record of heterosexuality, I can say without hesitation that Marc Singer might the coolest guy of the 80s! He is basically a mix of Luke Skywalker and Kevin Bacon. You certainly can't go wrong there. This is definitely something that every child of the '80s MUST have in his video library. Without question.