Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Review of FALLEN: Angelic Archrivals

November 22, 2016




At the beginning of this film, the Fallen are introduced to be a group of angels who did not want to take sides between the rift between God and Lucifer. Following a rebel angel, the Fallen have decided to side with a certain Rebel Angel who embraced the concept of Love instead of Good and Evil. They will remain to be the Fallen until the rebel angel abandons love and takes a side.

After apparently causing a fatal fire in a cabin, Lucinda "Luce" Price was sent  to Sword and Cross Academy, a boarding school for troubled students who could not function in regular schools. When she meets tall and good-looking Daniel Grigori, Luce cannot explain why she seems to know him even if he denies having met her ever before. The school bad boy Cam Briel is also falling for Luce, a match Daniel won't allow. Luce has to make up her mind as the two boys fight over her, revealing their real supernatural selves in the process. 

Ironically for a teen romance, the director chosen was an old veteran, Scott Hicks. In fact, Hicks had been nominated for an Academy Award before for his work on "Shine" (1996), the film that gave Geoffrey Rush his Oscar for Best Actor. For this project, he maximized the foggy and eerie atmosphere of their European castle location to create an ethereal mood of mystery. There isn't really much he could do about the skimpy story he is trying to tell, but he tries his best to sell the slim premise with haunting Gothic imagery.

The main actors were all unknown: Addison Timlin as Luce, Jeremy Irvine as Daniel and Harrison Gilbertson as Cam. They were all beautiful of face, but lacked depth in their acting.They were proficient at least, but none of them really stood out to show any potential as big stars. Supporting actors Lola Kirke (as Penn Lockwood) and Chris Ashby (as Todd Hammond) do so much better because of their naturalness, a welcome contrast from all the pretentious teen angst here. The only known name in the cast, Joely Richardson, lacked subtlety in her portrayal of their Religion teacher Sophia Bliss. 

I think this paranormal love-triangle romance film came out too late, so many years after the "Twilight" saga had already over-saturated the genre. Younger viewers may have a different opinion though, since this is clearly targeted for young adults. I liked how they did the angel wings though, very cool, but the fight scenes in flight were too shot too close-up to see what was going on clearly. The ending was abrupt and very open, so disappointing. This incomplete film was obviously only setting up for a sequel based on the second book in the series by Lauren Kate entitled "Torment", if it gets done at all. It felt more like the pilot episode of a TV series than a feature film. 4/10. 

12 comments:

  1. OMG! Fred!!! Its not often that give a 4 rating.... So sad to know the film didn't fare well. I just saw its trailer... It isn't that impressive...

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  2. Whenever I see the posters of the book and movie of "Fallen," I`m also often reminded of Twilight. I might have to agree that Twilight has already over-saturated this kind of book/movie. The Twilight Saga was such a hit and has so many loyal fans even up to this day.

    ❀ Grace ❀

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  3. I'm not sure I'm going to watch this based on your review. Maybe I will wait when it will be shown on TV or when I really don't have anything more important to do.

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  4. Fallen, i think it just like twilight series.

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  5. i'm not sure when this is released in the uk. i'd still watch it as it's right up my street

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  6. I guess it's off timing since flicks like this were hot a few years ago. Maybe younger audience would love this one.

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  7. It sounded promising until that abrupt end. I wonder what their reasoning to end the movie that way meant.

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  8. Despite the review, I'd still probably watch this film. I like romantic stories especially if it involves supernatural power.

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  9. I decided to skip seeing this one since I'm over this type of romantic movies. But hey, I'm a fan of Twilight. I guess I've exhausted my patience with that one!

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  10. Looks like this is the kind of movie I'll watch.. Love romantic series.. Hehe~ Nice one!

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  11. Oh wow, a friend was wanting to watch this, but I'm never interested in vampire flicks, thanks to Twilight. Glad i missed it :P

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