Kids sure do grow fast! In 1976, Damien Thorne was only five years old, but by 1978, he’d already turned 13!

Fast-forward three years and Damien stood as a 32-year-old man. This chronology makes no real sense, but it’s the path chosen by the producers of the Omen films, and it’s where we find Damien circa 1981’s The Final Conflict.

Damien Thorne (Sam Neill) acts as the head of a major corporation and gets the gig as US ambassador to the UK. Oh, and he’s also the literal anti-Christ, a malevolent being who wants to possess power and spread evil.

When the potential Second Coming of Christ occurs, Damien uses all means necessary to find and kill the child. Only a small group of monks stands between Damien and world domination.

At least until the series’ reboot in 2006, Conflict acted as the conclusion of the Omen franchise as a cinematic entity. On one hand, this seems due to the series’ consistently declining economic fortunes.

Back in 1976, the first film grossed $60 million in the US, a nice sum back then. 1978’s Omen II brought in less than half that amount, but $26 million wasn’t a shameful sum in that era.

And the $20 million of Conflict wasn’t as bad as it sounds to modern box office ears, either. Conflict came up with sales that resembled those of that same year’s Friday the 13th Part 2 and Halloween II.

Both of those flicks did nothing to slow their respective series’ progress, even though both represented steep declines in overall gross compared to their predecessors. So why did Fox bail on Omen after Conflict?

Good question – and one I can’t answer. The studio did attempt to resuscitate the property with 1991’s TV movie Omen IV: The Awakening but obviously that relaunch didn’t stick.

It’s also possible Fox thought the franchise seemed wobbly enough that no one could come up with a good way to continue it. This makes sense to me, as Conflict becomes a dull entry, even by this series’ low standards.

I know many regard the first Omen as a classic, but I never found it to be better than just okay. Omen II also was a passable film that never turned into anything special or memorable.

Given my low expectations for Conflict, I can’t say it truly disappoints me, but given the story, it seems like a severe missed opportunity. Whereas the first two movies focused on a young Damien who lacked the ability to spread his evil beyond a small radius, the Damien of Conflict boasts a much broader reach.

Given his age and prominence in both business and politics, adult Damien possesses the means to execute all sorts of nasty shenanigans. This means the film ups the ante over the smaller scale events of the first two.

Alas, Conflict doesn’t manage to do much with its potential, as it prefers to stick with a simple tale in which those monks try to kill Damien and he fights back. The movie largely consists of one “near miss” from the monks after another, replete with gory deaths.

None of this develops into a satisfying narrative, partly because we never really feel the threat involved. Neill plays Damien as little more than a “B”-movie baddie, one who twirls his figurative moustache a lot but not someone who seems especially devious or impressive.

Given his career since 1981, we know Neill possesses talent, but he really does come across as one-note here. To succeed as he has, Damien needs to show charm and charisma, whereas Neill’s Damien just seems like an ominous creep who smirks and glowers his way through the film.

That said, the script leaves Neill with so much awful dialogue that I don’t know what more he could’ve done with the role. Everything about the movie seems stilted and often silly.

Conflict also becomes persistently boring, shockingly so given all the potential drama involved. Whatever the movie could’ve been, the end result brings us a flat snoozer.

Omen: The Final Conflict appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The image usually looked pretty good.

Definition was positive. Occasional soft shots materialized, and I couldn’t call the movie razor-sharp, but the majority showed good clarity.

No issues with shimmering or jaggies materialized. I saw no edge haloes and only detected a couple of tiny specks.

Colors appeared largely appealing. The movie tended toward a low-key palette, and the disc replicated those with good accuracy.

Blacks were reasonably dark, while low-light shots demonstrated appropriate clarity. This became a solid “B” image.

As for the film’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 remix, the material mainly hewed to the front speakers. In that spectrum, I heard good stereo separation and imaging for the music.

Effects had less to do, however, as they often remained largely monaural. Some of these elements sporadically spread to the side and/or rear channels, but they didn’t do much to broaden out from the front center.

Audio quality was dated but good. Dialogue occasionally displayed some flatness, but speech usually seemed reasonably natural and distinct, and I heard no concerns related to intelligibility.

Effects demonstrated some minor distortion at times, but those elements sounded acceptably clean and accurate. Music also seemed pretty positive, as the score appeared fairly full. This became a competent remix.

In addition to the film’s trailer, we get an audio commentary from director Graham Baker. He offers a running, screen-specific look at story and characters, cast and performances, sets and locations, music, effects and connected domains.

On the surface, that sounds like a good selection of production subjects, but unfortunately, Baker provides an extremely spotty chat. When he talks, he offers some decent insights, though he never gives us anything especially memorable.

The main issues stems from the fact Baker goes silent an awful lot of the time. This leaves us with gobs of dead air, particularly during the film’s second half.

I’d be surprised if Baker gives us more than five minutes of information across the last 55 minutes or so, and the first half doesn’t seem much more productive. Baker remains MIA way too much to make this an enjoyable commentary, so skip it.

After The Final Conflict, the Omen franchise went dormant for a decade, and I can’t complain about that lull. Conflict wraps up the original trilogy with a yawn. The Blu-ray provides generally good picture and audio as well as a flawed commentary. Conflict fails to develop into a lively thriller.