Review: Gabriel


In a fight to control the inhabitants of Purgatory, archangel Gabriel (the late Andy Whitfield) is sent to bring the balance back to the Light, and rescue lost souls, a tough task given several previous archangels have fallen prey to evil Sammael (Dwaine Stevenson). Noble plays a fallen archangel Gabriel tries to bring back to the Light from her current heroin-addicted existence as a hooker.

 

I’ve long held the belief that Australia needs to make more genre films, but this badly made 2007 Shane Abbess film didn’t exactly help the cause. Badly acted (Lead actor Whitfield had his fans, but here he’s a black-hole of charisma), campy yet humourless (post-production voice tampering just sounds stupid), it’s like a shithouse Aussie blend of “The Matrix” and “Blade”. Outside of its impressive visual design (It looks more expensive than it likely was), there’s really nothing much of worth here. Of the actors, villain Stevenson comes off best, but that’s because he’s one-note instead of zero in his performance (He also looks like a cross between actor Lachy Hulme and singer Tim Rogers). Meanwhile, model/singer/TV host Erika Heynatz has some talent, and would get much better as an actress over the years. She just isn’t up to par here, though she’s the only person in the film who doesn’t sound like she needs a throat lozenge.

 

Endlessly talky, dreary, pompous, and narratively dull (even the action is boring), and yet I could actually see some of this working in a cult TV show capacity like a cross between “Farscape” and “Angel”. The idea of a story set in Purgatory certainly has possibilities. Not that I would watch it, I’ve never been a fan of stories about arch-angels (“Prophecy” excepted). Still, a shit-house Aussie genre film is far easier for me to digest than a shithouse Aussie arthouse film like “Jindabyne” or “Book of Revelation”. We’ve done much, much better before and since this one, though. Scripted by Matt Hylton Todd and the director, featuring abysmal character development (I still have no idea who Heynatz was supposed to be), and far too many damn characters in the first place. And why are archangels using guns on each other? Aren’t they already, y’know...dead? Just a thought. This is a bit of a snore.

 

Rating: D+

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