Have seen AVENGERS GRIMM: TIME WARS and really enjoyed it, though if you're not already a fan or admirer of The Asylum's output, I doubt TIME WARS will convert you. While the original AVENGERS GRIMM and spin-off film SINISTER SQUAD were both written and directed by Jeremy Inman, with TIME WARS Inman only provides the script and directing duties are handled by longtime Asylum staffer Max Elfeldt. Inman's screenplay impressively expands upon the world-building he conducted in the previous two films. In AVENGERS GRIMM, the Magic Mirror - a portal between worlds - was shattered, and SINISTER SQUAD dealt with the aftermath, as the walls separating various dimensions broke down and realms started to overlap and bleed into one another. Alice (herself a seasoned mirror traveller) established Looking Glass, a holding facility for troublesome individuals from other worlds who had been unleashed upon 'our' Earth, staffed by various characters from Wonderland and the Grimm-world. In TIME WARS, the surface world comes under attack from the forces of Queen Magda of Atlantis (played by Katherine Maya) - visually inspired by Aquaman and Mera from the JUSTICE LEAGUE movie, and presumably supposed to be Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid, Gone Bad (in case you're wondering why she's not called Ariel, Andersen never named her in his original story - it was Disney who came up with the Ariel moniker, and if The Asylum had identified her as such, they no doubt would have received a swift phone call from the House of Mouse's legal department). Magda is pursuing Prince Charming (Michael Marcel), Snow White's ex who vanished on the eve of their wedding several years earlier, having been lured into a trap by Magda and subsequently held prisoner until his recent escape. Charming has the film's McGuffin, a magical ring that will bestow upon who'sever finger he willingly places it on complete & absolute power over... well, basically everything.
Inman clearly knows that continuity is important to movie and comic book fans, and takes time to explain why some characters from the previous films are absent (when actor availability and/or a restricted budget were no doubt the real reasons), though some of his explanations are pleasingly cheeky: "Trust the rest of the Squad to be on holiday when we're facing an invasion" mutters Alice.
Having upgraded Looking Glass from it's initial warehouse location to a high-tech skyscraper, Alice and her faithful second-in-command Hatter (Christina Licciardi and Randall Yarbrough respiring their roles from SINISTER SQUAD) awaken Snow White, whose body instinctively froze itself to recover from the injuries sustained at the conclusion of AVENGERS GRIMM, reunite her with Sleeping Beauty and Red Riding Hood, and set them to work locating Charming and foiling Magda's schemes. Also getting involved is Rumpelstiltskin, the Big Bad in AVENGERS GRIMM who was pressganged into assisting Alice in SINISTER SQUAD. Portrayed by Eric Feltes (the third actor to play the role in this series), he continues - as he did in SQUAD - to take advantage of the situation & play both sides against one another, successfully conspiring to activate fragments of the Mirror and trap Snow, Beauty and Red by bouncing them around between different worlds and timestreams.
Lauren Parkinson as Snow White and Marah Fairclough as Sleeping Beauty both return from the first AVENGERS GRIMM. Parkinson gets an effective action sequence as Snow is confronted at the burial site of her closest friends by a hulking Merman assassin who'd been specifically tasked with killing her, and makes impromptu use of grave markers to defend herself. Fairclough's Sleeping Beauty was memorably prissy and snide in the previous movie, and although she's mellowed considerably, her banter with Red Riding Hood still contains a pleasing degree of snark. Elizabeth Eileen plays Red, but looks so identical to Elizabeth Peterson who played the role in the earlier GRIMM that I believe she must be the same actress, though the IMDB currently lists them as two separate performers. Regardless, Eileen is clearly enjoying herself enormously as the team's resident combat specialist and weapons expert, dispatching Magda's minions with knives, swords, her trusty bow & arrow, and - proving how well Red has adapted to our world - producing hand grenades and twin revolvers from under her cloak. Hatter was portrayed as a permanently spaced out acid casualty in SINISTER SQUAD, but seems slightly more grounded this time round - most of the time, anyway. Displaying an impeccable English accent, Christina Licciardi's Alice was the best thing about SQUAD, and she's equally good here. Having initially been a Nick Fury/Amanda Waller figure, Alice is now revealed to have her own superpower, and it's perfectly in keeping with Lewis Carroll's original stories. And as Prince Charming, Marcel gives a nicely judged and winningly tongue-in-cheek performance of a handsome, deep-voiced, utterly sincere, impossibly perfect and sickeningly noble fairytale hero.
At the time of writing, superhero movies remain in vogue and highly popular. As a result, I hope we haven't seen the last of The Asylum's AVENGERS GRIMM-verse. I would certainly welcome further adventures.
Inman clearly knows that continuity is important to movie and comic book fans, and takes time to explain why some characters from the previous films are absent (when actor availability and/or a restricted budget were no doubt the real reasons), though some of his explanations are pleasingly cheeky: "Trust the rest of the Squad to be on holiday when we're facing an invasion" mutters Alice.
Having upgraded Looking Glass from it's initial warehouse location to a high-tech skyscraper, Alice and her faithful second-in-command Hatter (Christina Licciardi and Randall Yarbrough respiring their roles from SINISTER SQUAD) awaken Snow White, whose body instinctively froze itself to recover from the injuries sustained at the conclusion of AVENGERS GRIMM, reunite her with Sleeping Beauty and Red Riding Hood, and set them to work locating Charming and foiling Magda's schemes. Also getting involved is Rumpelstiltskin, the Big Bad in AVENGERS GRIMM who was pressganged into assisting Alice in SINISTER SQUAD. Portrayed by Eric Feltes (the third actor to play the role in this series), he continues - as he did in SQUAD - to take advantage of the situation & play both sides against one another, successfully conspiring to activate fragments of the Mirror and trap Snow, Beauty and Red by bouncing them around between different worlds and timestreams.
Lauren Parkinson as Snow White and Marah Fairclough as Sleeping Beauty both return from the first AVENGERS GRIMM. Parkinson gets an effective action sequence as Snow is confronted at the burial site of her closest friends by a hulking Merman assassin who'd been specifically tasked with killing her, and makes impromptu use of grave markers to defend herself. Fairclough's Sleeping Beauty was memorably prissy and snide in the previous movie, and although she's mellowed considerably, her banter with Red Riding Hood still contains a pleasing degree of snark. Elizabeth Eileen plays Red, but looks so identical to Elizabeth Peterson who played the role in the earlier GRIMM that I believe she must be the same actress, though the IMDB currently lists them as two separate performers. Regardless, Eileen is clearly enjoying herself enormously as the team's resident combat specialist and weapons expert, dispatching Magda's minions with knives, swords, her trusty bow & arrow, and - proving how well Red has adapted to our world - producing hand grenades and twin revolvers from under her cloak. Hatter was portrayed as a permanently spaced out acid casualty in SINISTER SQUAD, but seems slightly more grounded this time round - most of the time, anyway. Displaying an impeccable English accent, Christina Licciardi's Alice was the best thing about SQUAD, and she's equally good here. Having initially been a Nick Fury/Amanda Waller figure, Alice is now revealed to have her own superpower, and it's perfectly in keeping with Lewis Carroll's original stories. And as Prince Charming, Marcel gives a nicely judged and winningly tongue-in-cheek performance of a handsome, deep-voiced, utterly sincere, impossibly perfect and sickeningly noble fairytale hero.
At the time of writing, superhero movies remain in vogue and highly popular. As a result, I hope we haven't seen the last of The Asylum's AVENGERS GRIMM-verse. I would certainly welcome further adventures.