Fallen
(2006/ABC Family/Image DVD)
Picture: C+ Sound: C+ Extras: D Episodes: C-
Need a
fantasy tale about a war between good and killer angels? Fallen
(2006) is a TV Mini-Series that has future Vampire
Diaries star Paul Wesley as a half-human, half-angel character who only
finds out who he really is when he turns 18 and some not so nice people/evil
angels out to do major damage are taken off guard by his personal
revelation. Unfortunately, it is a clichéd
revelation and this is boring.
From
digital wings to swords made of fire that look more like rejected light saber
ideas from Star Wars, the acting is
bad, storyline ludicrous, action sequences (if you can call them that
laughable) and look of the whole thing dull and unmemorable. The great cinematographer Mikael Salomon gave
up his first calling to become a director, but he has only managed journeyman
status at best. This is sadly his nadir
and I like his work. Tom Skerritt (Alien) is wasted among the cast of
unknowns in a nonsense role of a visionary homeless man (another cliché) and
has even done better such genre work on TV (The
Devil’s Platform episode of Kolchak:
The Night Stalker) and seems out of place the whole time.
This is a
curio you are better skipping unless you are a big fan of either Wesley or
Skerritt and writer Sara B. Cooper (from the Tom Sniegoski book) has done much
better work herself.
The anamorphically
enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is good, but not great with some softness throughout
and no surprises. The Dolby Digital 2.0
Stereo is also passable, but nothing to write home about. It can even be too loud and awkwardly
mixed. The only extra is a trailer.
- Nicholas Sheffo
