The Prophecy

Watching this movie, I got a really amusing thought: what if when the angel, Gabriel, appeared to Mary to present her with the good tidings, he looked a lot like Christopher Walken? Oh, what I wouldn't give to see her reaction. The premise of this mostly silly, though generally enjoyable supernatural thriller is that there is a missing chapter in the book of Revelation which explains that there is an ongoing second war in heaven (the first, of course, being the one that banished Lucifer) that began soon after the resurrection. Apparently angels aren't the little cuddly children we see in Charmin commercials, they're primarily messengers of death -- they do God's dirty work and worship Him with one wing dipped in blood. Now, some of them are pissed that God has united man with Him and when we are in Heaven, we will be above the angels. After all the work angels do, you'd think God might throw them a bone here and there, but no, He's too busy fawning over us mortals. Walken plays Gabriel, the leader of the rebelling angels who is looking for the soul of a dead military officer (who apparently was really evil and could turn the tide in this war). Angels take human form and do some good detective work, but an actual detective (who was once trained to be a priest) is also on their tail. This seems to be the kind of film that might have been made by a fringe Catholic. Its theology is never seriously off (except the obvious liberties it takes with the addition to the Bible), but then again, it's all a bit too silly to take seriously anyway. Walken, once again proves that he has a unique way of giving very interesting performances in generally bad movies, and in the process elevating them higher than they may deserve. Viggo Mortensen also shows up late in the game with an interesting turn as the Dark Prince himself, but he shows up too late, and by then it doesn't really matter. I probably enjoyed it more than it's really worth.