2* Review By James R. Holland

The God and Angels In This Film Are More Like The Ones On Mt. Olympus

This motion picture appears to be a pilot for a television series or some kind of motion picture trilogy. Basically the theme is that God has become bored with mankind and has dispatched Angel Generals Michael and Gabriel to turn the human population into characters out of the Night of the Living Dead. The more numerous weak-minded will eat the stronger willed. Problem solved.

As with the very human-like, flawed Gods of Greek Mythology’s Mount Olympus, in this film apparently both God and his angels have the human traits of jealously, play politics and don’t always agree with or obey orders. Michael has decided God doesn’t really know what a mistake he is making and so Michael arrives on earth in the same blue lightning that the terminators usually use for transport. He sheds his wings and sets out to save humanity by saving the unborn child of a single mother who is destined to save the world. Most of the action takes place in the New Mexico Desert at a beat-up truck stop called Paradise Falls.

If this theme sounds a little familiar, it probably is? This reviewer found the script to be a collection of parts of Stephen King’s Maximum Overdrive, The Terminator, Night of the Living Dead or any one of the recent Zombie flicks. And then there is Legion, whose most recent appearance was in Nicholas Cage’s Ghost Rider. Now it’s been a while since I attended Sunday school, but when Jesus cast out the legion of demons it was only a minor miracle and short footnote in the Bible. Few Sunday schools teach that God is the type of deity that gets “tired of all the bullshit” and so decides to clear the planet of humans so he can begin a fresh canvas of creation.

In addition to reminding the viewer of all the previously mentioned films, this one isn’t as good as any of them. That’s not to say the film had no redeeming value, but angels using their wings to deflect bullets from an Uzi fired at them by another angel or rolling around, wing-over-wing on the floor trying to hit each other with a cool version of a kinky, super-sized medieval mace, just doesn’t compute. The Greek gods liked to gamble on and amuse themselves with these kinds of contests among the humans, but that kind of politically incorrect behavior by deities just doesn’t cut it any more.

Scott Stewart, the director and co-writer of this sure-to-be a B-Movie Cult Classic provides touches of the same movie magic he created in his Priest fantasy adventure, but these instances are more like teases of what might have been. The actors do a decent job considering the muddled script they were working with. This reviewer particularly liked the performances of Dennis Quaid as Bob Hanson and Charles S. Dutton as Percy Walker and a non-emoting, but nicely tattooed Paul Bettany as Michael. Naturally the performance portraying the rebellious daughter Audry has to be mentioned not because of her short, short micro mini-skirt, but because she is played by Willa Holland who may be distantly related to this reviewer via a screen name coincidence? It’s tough to make even a pilot for a television show with such murky Biblical imagery.

The best part of the movie is the poster advertising it and some of the motion picture’s beautifully crafted visual images. It was also interesting that the newly arrived Arch-Angel Michael, field commander of the army of God, does his shopping for staples at a City of Angels Chinese toy factory. There certainly appeared to be a lot of unhealthy lead for sale in that toy company. The Terminators would love shopping there.

James R. Holland is a film editor, producer, and author--most recently of Adventure Photographer (A Bit of Boston Books/ 2009).  He reviews movies exclusively for Basil & Spice.  Visit James R. Holland's Writer's Page.

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