How good?

On the whole, I'd give The Final Battle a 4/10. Not awful, but a bit of a letdown in my eyes.

What I liked about The Final Battle:
-Enjoyable action scenes. One thing both V miniseries did better than just about any other 80s sci-fi production was in giving us well-choreographed shootouts. Unfortunately, the action material here isn't as gritty or "realistic" as the stuff Kenneth Johnson gave us in the first miniseries (i.e. the aliens have incredibly poor aim this time around, for instance), but it does the job and delivers some solid thrills. I especially liked the opening raid on the Visitor processing plant, a later raid on the water pumping facility, and the final two-way attack on the L.A. mothership and the Earth headquarters (though I still wonder how dozens of highly armed resistance members snuck onto the property without being noticed).

-The lead performances, particularly Marc Singer and Michael Ironside. Singer's a ham, but he's nonetheless very charismatic and quite convincing as a rebel leader. Ironside's role is iconic in the sense that every role he's gotten since then (whether as hero or villain) feels like a variation of Ham Tyler, the bad-ass CIA agent who turns the rebel forces into an effecient fighting force.

-Part 1 of the miniseries probably works best. It effectively establishes a dark tone and shows the rebels devising a pretty elaborate plan and executing it well to score a victory (the miniseries seemed to get sillier from there on out, with only the introduction of Ham Tyler and the continuously strong presence of Singer to keep the slide in quality from sinking that much faster).

-And, of course, the basic concept of a human resistance taking on alien Nazis is appealing for science fiction/action fans.

What I didn't like:
-The miniseries simply comes across as too episodic. In fact, there really was no need for the show to come in three parts other than padding for an extra night of high Nielsen ratings. Each two-hour segment really just involves the rebel forces going on a dangerous mission to hinder the Visitors in some way or another (lather, rinse, repeat), coming across like a "battle of the week" syndrome that I've heard afflicted the TV series. Quite honestly, the outcome of the miniseries wouldn't be too different if they'd excised much of the first two parts and just started with the birth of the alien babies.

There's also too many subplots that don't really add much or go anywhere interesting, like the troubled relationship between the ex-cop and his girlfriend and the disagreements between Pamela and Diana. It's all the more disappointing considering one of the more intriguing subplots in the first miniseries was watching how Daniel's parents react to him becoming a traitor and working for the Visitors, but both parents show up for maybe two seconds of screen time here.

-As mentioned before, the Visitors seem a lot less competent this time around, whether it's with their security measures or their lowering proficiency in combat. They also seemed tougher in the first miniseries, when they were able to take on bullets with minimal damage (which Kenneth Johnson mentioned in his commentary was because of their scaly skin, but TFB decided to go with bullet proof armor which I thought was disappointing) and tough to take down in one-on-one fights.

-I was a bit surprised none of the characters wondered what effect the red dust would have on Earth's indigenous reptiles. I think the novelization mentioned it was as harmless to them as humans, but at least a brief mention in the miniseries would have been enough.

-The absolutely cheesy ending involving the alien child. I think most who've seen it agree it was a terrible way to end what should have been a taut, suspenseful situation. I think the novelization ended (spoilers) with the countdown going on a continuous loop, which I think would have been a far more satisfying resolution.

-The score is a bit of a mixed bag. The electronic music in part 1 works quite well. The more traditional adventure music in the other two segments is occasionally cheesy, especially with the saxophone. Hard to believe those portions were composed by Dennis McCarthy who'd go on to do such a great job scoring Star Trek.

-And while this isn't necessarily a complaint, the lighting is different from the brighter-looking original, which had a fairly cinematic look and feel to it (much of that also having to do with Ken Johnson's more dynamic direction and editing). The darker lighting in TFB gives it a more TVish appearance to it.