Since the beginning of time, Heaven and Hell have fought over Purgatory and the souls trapped inside it. Each side has sent seven warriors: archangels from Heaven, fallen angels from Hell.
Over time, Hell has become ascendant in Purgatory, transforming it into a dark and seedy place. Now the seventh and last archangel, Gabriel, enters the city, hoping to discover whether any of his predecessors still live, and if they do, to unite with them and overcome the forces of Hell.
He will find this a massive task. Coming to Purgatory forces the Archangels to assume human form and cuts them off from replenishing their divine power. Over time, the Archangels were eventually worn down and fell prey to their fallen enemies, who thrived and became stronger the longer they stayed in purgatory. This will happen to Gabriel, too, unless he can find a new way to fight.
Can he? Well, the movie's named after him, so I think he has a decent shot!
Gabriel is an Australian action-horror film starring Andy Whitfield in the title role. Whitfield would go on to play the lead in Spartacus: Blood and Sand a couple of years later, before regrettably having his life and promising career cut short by lymphoma. He's by far the best thing in this film. The rest of the acting is frankly very uneven, likely a product of the movie's limited financial resources. It was independently produced, without government funding, for around the equivalent of $100,000 US.
Gabriel is an Australian action-horror film starring Andy Whitfield in the title role. Whitfield would go on to play the lead in Spartacus: Blood and Sand a couple of years later, before regrettably having his life and promising career cut short by lymphoma. He's by far the best thing in this film. The rest of the acting is frankly very uneven, likely a product of the movie's limited financial resources. It was independently produced, without government funding, for around the equivalent of $100,000 US.
The acting is not the only place where the film's lack of funding is apparent. The sets and effects are very limited, for instance, with the various cityscapes being obvious CGI. The choreography of the action scenes is also generally very limited. Smartly, they save their best work for the very first fight, as a high tempo (if short) kickstart, and for the rather longer and more elaborate final confrontation between Gabriel and the leader of Hell's forces.
It's clear throughout that the film wants to be much more epic than its resources really allow. I appreciate the ambition, but not the judgement: This is a film whose reach frequently exceeds its grasp, and it would probably have been stronger overall if it had restrained its more overblown ambitions and focused on strengthening the narrative core of the film.
Because the script and plotting are definitely the film's main weak points. The storytelling is very didactic and heavy-handed, something that is clear right from the outset of the film, when it delivers page after page of text to explain the background. I like to read books, but books aren't movies and I don't want to read a film. This huge text dump is particularly galling because boy oh boy the film is not short on exposition about the war between Heaven and Hell, and the film could easily have covered all this stuff as part of that.
Which leads into the second issue: Much of the film is just Gabriel learning what's already happened. Which means it most of the runtime consists of lots of pretty men (and occasionally women) having Very Intense Conversations that every now and again break out into violence. Imagine a beat-em-up computer game that is 80% cut scenes and 20% actually beat-em-up, and you have the basic idea.
It's clear throughout that the film wants to be much more epic than its resources really allow. I appreciate the ambition, but not the judgement: This is a film whose reach frequently exceeds its grasp, and it would probably have been stronger overall if it had restrained its more overblown ambitions and focused on strengthening the narrative core of the film.
Because the script and plotting are definitely the film's main weak points. The storytelling is very didactic and heavy-handed, something that is clear right from the outset of the film, when it delivers page after page of text to explain the background. I like to read books, but books aren't movies and I don't want to read a film. This huge text dump is particularly galling because boy oh boy the film is not short on exposition about the war between Heaven and Hell, and the film could easily have covered all this stuff as part of that.
Which leads into the second issue: Much of the film is just Gabriel learning what's already happened. Which means it most of the runtime consists of lots of pretty men (and occasionally women) having Very Intense Conversations that every now and again break out into violence. Imagine a beat-em-up computer game that is 80% cut scenes and 20% actually beat-em-up, and you have the basic idea.
The script is also rather rapey, which is definitely a big black mark against it in my books.
Do I have anything positive to say? Well, the ending is pretty solid. The fight that sets it up is a cut above the others and I can see how the way it plays out could have been the Big Idea that inspired them to work so hard to make the movie, despite their lack of funding. I don't think it is enough to save the film overall though.
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