She is built up to be Mike's soul mate and fighting partner. Without even a line of dialogue, we see her dead. And there is not a mention of her the rest of the movie. That's one of the many reasons why this movie doesn't work.
shareI like P3, but yeah you're absolutely right. Desperately wanted a scene, even one, of Mike grieving at the very least.
Exactly, killing her off was fine, but not having her even mentioned after that was very lazy and also made it harder to accept the transition in actor for Mike.
shareCoscarelli treated Tim in part 3 the same way. In the book, it's said it was more like "oh well, they're dead, the audience knows it, let's move on".
shareOn the other hand, it gets the dwarves some much-needed credibility as she (If my memory serves me right) is the only person in the series they actually harm. Of course, it's debatable if this is worth sacrificing Liz for.
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Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance: 7.9
Get it onto the Top 250!
That's the main reason I hated this movie so much.
It really made no sense that they killed her off.
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Coscarelli (the director) was under studio pressure during part 2 to recast the role of Mike and to add in a romantic partner for him. Coscarelli never liked the idea of Liz's character and never agreed with the recasting of Mike (hell, Universal even suggested they recast the part of Reg). That explains the abrupt departure of her at the beginning.
Caffeine Junkie
Ya know what? I understand it's Coscarelli's series but Liz was a great and interesting character. I could care less honestly that he didn't want her in there (well I do care but still). She was an enormous part of Phantasm II, which was a huge fan favorite. Killing her and then ignoring her basicly says Phantasm II was a waste of time. I really liked Liz, and as many said if they were going to kill her off at least make it a reasonable death with actual mourning on Mike and Reggie's part (mainly Mike but still). Liz's death in Part 3 RUINED the movie the first time I saw it, but the second time (with commentary) I lerned Angus Scrimm felt very strongly against killing her off and the third time I enjoyed it ignoring that bit in the beginning.
Recasting Mike didn't really bother me later on because James LeGros was a fantastic actor and did a great job in Phantasm II. I think Michael Baldwin deserved the part for obvious reasons, but he really blew it in Phantasm III, where I think he did a poor acting job but later made up with a great performance in Phantasm IV.
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I agree - killing her off wasn't the brightest idea. Sure, you copuld debate it since Don may have never wanted the character in the first place, but not AT LEAST mentioning her death - since, you know, it does still take up a huge part of Part 2, her involvement does - was very strange (and bad) for the story.
There's also a problem I have with Mike's character in this one, and it is one of the bigger problems I have with the film as a whole. Aside from the whole idea of changing actors between such a short timespan within the story, there's the fact that Mike goes from someone who is all excited about putting the Tall Man down for the count in Part 2, and then in Part 3, he's super vulnerable. Seriously. He is either in a coma, kidnapped in such a tight space, or strapped to a table getting drilled in the head. This is the Mike who helped Reggie hunt down the Tall Man in the previous entry? I don't think so.
At least this movie showed a little effort in getting rid of her character. I always thought the opening to the film was one of the best scenes in the entire movie. Whoever did the editing, made some clever cuts to try to smoothly replace the actor who was playing Mike, and make it look like Liz was in there the entire time. I really don't know why the director/writer never liked her as a character (I know the studio pushed alot of things in part II) but almost 99% of Phantasm fans out there liked her. I agree the film would of been better with her in it. Or at least show a scene in which Mike finds out about her death or grieves her. I mean in this movie they at least showed that scene in which Tim finds the photograph of Reg's wife and daughter. There were alot of things they could of done better character wise in this movie. I mean really...Rocky? Liz would of been better, even if she was killed off at the end.
I mean look at part VI. Tim is no longer there...I know he was pulled through the window, but bang the second the film opens he's no longer there. At least they made it a closed subject with Liz.
There should of been another reason why Mike fell apart and acted so different, he lost his soul mate. I tried looking around for any Phantasm fan fiction and see what fans would of wrote and there's nothing.
But I guess that's just how the series went. Maybe for part V there will have another actress play Liz in a dream scene or something, showing Mike all the people he's lost. Who knows, I guess we'll see when the movie comes out.
"You know, your clothes may say disco, but your eyes say rock n' roll."
Nope, even though Coscarelli didn't like the idea he was still going to somehow include her. The problem was that the actress playing Liz decided to stop acting and she wouldn't come back. They didn't want to recast her like they did with Mike in part 2 so they just killed her off. it's in the Phantasm Exhumed book.
shareIt's probably cuz they didn't want to replace her and have another Mike situation. You know like in part 2. By the time they made part 3, the actress who played Liz decided she no longer wanted to act and that's why she didn't return. So they just killed her off.
shareI have no problem she was killed off, but I hate the way it was done. She was killed off like nothing more than a throwaway character. She was crucial in Phantasm II and deserved better in Phantasm III.
I get the studio was very involved with II, but I liked it a lot. My fave of the series, that was back when Hollywood actually produced good movies where as now 95% of Hollywood blows.
I like Michael Baldwin, but I much prefer James LeGros. And Phantasm III was ok, big let down IMO. I personally thought the movie was too average to get over these things.
The phone is dead. Do you hear that, Vitus? Even the phone is dead.
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Angus Scrimm mentions that he was very unhappy with Liz's death in the commentary, but he isn't given a chance to elaborate because Ass Michael Baldwin cuts him off. That whole commentary is frustrating because showstealer spends a good chunk of it whining that he wasn't in Phantasm 2.
share[deleted]
BREAKING NEWS, GUYS.
Phantasm II was *beep* Liz was an okay character, but replacing Mike almost made the whole movie off-putting. He was a terrible actor. Reggie's character, and the gorey, yet comedic, action scenes were all this movie had to offer.
Oh, and the sex scene probably kept viewers watching, too.
It seemed like they spent more time/money/effort in the second film towards pyrotechnics and way less on acting ability and character/plot development.
Truuueeee, they should have more thoroughly followed up on Liz's character in the third, but she wasn't Mike's fighting partner. Yeah, she was his female counterpart, but mostly she was just his damsel in distress.
The third movie was more dynamic and explored more of what the entire series is about. Mike didn't change his stance on fighting the Tall Man in this one- he had to be vulnerable and somewhat defeated so that series didn't become static... every sequel would just be Reggie and Mike going town to town all gung-ho about defeating the Tall Man, probably picking up chicks along the way, mistakingly thinking that they had succeeded, and an ending scene of Reggie not far from dead. At least introducing new characters and playing with the older ones makes it a little less unpredictable.
"At least introducing new characters and playing with the older ones makes it a little less unpredictable."
Are you freakin' kidding me? New characters: A boy, who is a cowboy and a survivalist (who does nothing else than shooting and speaking two sentences) and a military lady, named Roxie, who just takes part in fighting the zombies and then leaves again... well, at least we had a strong female for the female viewers and a tough kid for the child viewers... yeay.
On top of that we had a cowardly Mike, who didn't even want to fight (or act)...
And I agree, Liz shouldn't have been killed off...
Yes, killing off Liz and the lousy Cuda clone in this one are just two of many reasons why this one SUX.
When I discovered I'd been cloned, I was simply beside myself.
I didnt like the Liz character in the first place but I agree that she deserved a more decent death.
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