Strong and Moving!

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Nobody ever seems to note that such dramas even if they are well produced are a glamorization of the Church as if it was the ultimate adventure. I think David Seltzer is a good creative person as he did do The Omen films, but all in all I find his world view as it comes across in this mini series, as in The Omen films, to reek of spiritual pride. I am not someone who feels that organized religion like Christianity holds the keys to very much. I feel that this drama is indeed a dramatization of the importance of religion in humanities evolutionary process. I like to think that humanity is not as clued in to its ancient past as it likes to believe it is and that if humanity had more interest in science it would be a better world for everybody. To me this mini series is interesting but it is also a farce of sorts, that seeks to celebrate mans so called achievements as a species, achievements that I feel mankind has never achieved, like a clear and uncorrupted understanding of good and evil and an understanding of the Earth as a historic entity and a vehicle for the future higher evolution of sentient life. Imagine if civilization went back more than 50,000 years, and as each epoch passed more of the past was submerged by seawater, until all that was left was this clue or that hint. Then I think things become interesting, as no one group can claim to be the source of religion or civilization, because it all would have come from the same place, separated by time and tide. Lo the evil one has won the day-I mean what a bunch of hogwash...or no, wait, maybe he has, since most people will believe anything that gets sent their way on a DVD, on TV, or in a newspaper. Could have been more of a vision not just a regurgitation of the last chapters of the Bible. Yawn. Not real artistic vision.

The end of the world is always intriguing subject matter, for the religious and non-religious alike, and with cinematic explorations of the Apocalypse such as the Omen it's themes are at least vaguely familiar to even those of us not raised in Christianity. Revelations does not stray far from the formula in that respect- the birth of the anti-Christ, the second coming of Jesus, it's all handled or hinted at in ways that will not wow us with originality, but it does manage to place them in a contemporary context without alienating the audience- we are drawn into the story, and it is believable to us.Bill Pullman and Natascha McElhone play the spiritual equivalents of Mulder and Scully, but with the gender roles reversed. It's a well-worn concept- the believer and the pessimist having to work together to achieve a common goal, but credit has to be given to the actors, who do bring something new to the roles, and make them characters we can acre about easily. Natascha McElhone conveys the wide eyed Sister Josepha Montafiore with such conviction that you find yourself envious of her sense of almost child-like wonder. Bill Pullman also shines as a jaded man who has lost so much.Revelations also follows the recent trend of focusing on family- it's something I noticed recently in the cancelled sci fi show Invasion. I think it's an effective way of bringing the events occurring around the characters home, quite literally, for the audiences, and for a theme as huge as the world ending, it's a way of not overwhelming the audience with ideas- this is not a cinematic epic, it's very much about the central characters.There are of course weaknesses with the show also. Prisoners who share a jail with Satan worshipper Isaiah Haden are very easily "converted to the dark side" and it's not completely believable because they are treated as a homogeneous group- they are in jail therefore they must all be unrepentant people who will side with Satan in order to feel good about themselves. It just doesn't work, and considering the depth in writing in some aspects of the show, it's a stark contrast. Similarly, the brief references we get terrorism are handled in a very Christian-centric manner. In a show that deal with God and faith, you would expect some exploration of different religions, and the different forms in which faith and a belief in God can manifest itself, but instead I felt we were being spoon-fed things that boiled down to "good" and "bad@ and that's not what an adult audience wants.Despite these weaknesses, it's unfortunate that the show was not given an opportunity to grow- I would have been very curious to see the direction the show would have taken, particularly with more episodes per season to really explore the themes laid down in these 6 episodes.I would certainly recommend this to people who are interested in the subject matters stated earlier, and for those in the mood to get into a story that won't take weeks to see through.

There seems to be a common dislike in the public for this miniseries, for any number of reasons. Therefore, the majority of people out there seem to be influenced by these opinions rather than their own. I watched every episode starting at the premiere, and I can say that while I was rather alarmed at the constant misquoting of scripture (which is really the only true negative I had regarding this show), overall it was an engaging show. This show seemed to be honestly striving to have a purpose on television, to tell people about what is inevitable, though likely not in the way it is being described in the show itself. This, in a world where religion is so controversial that the very mention of God can spark heated debates between opposing sides. There are always going to be people offended by the mention of religion (but why they bother watching the show in the case, I don't know). With subject matter like the Apocalypse, in which every side has a different idea of how it's going to come about, there will always be sides unhappy with the way it is presented. Instead of focusing in on all the little things that conflict with your own personal beliefs, watch the show for its entertainment value, which I found to be rather high compared to most of the stuff on television nowadays. I would highly suggest that people give it a fair shot, get rid of all your biases, and watch it for its purpose: to serve as entertainment for religious and secular audiences alike.

Last night, my cable box cut out before "The L Word" - why did it have to play up during a good TV show and choose to work perfectly throughout all six hours of "Revelations"? Six hours. Six of the dullest, least invigorating hours I've ever spent in front of a television screen.Screenwriter David Seltzer went on record as not really believing in the stuff when he wrote "The Omen," but this tale of the End of Days is truly lacking in conviction from Joseph Vitarelli's clichéd choral theme onwards (whatever you might think of "The Passion of the Christ," you can't deny that Mel Gibson genuinely put his money where his mouth is); instead of being thought-provoking and chilling, the first four hours are nothing but build-up with nothing going anywhere, and when it's not teasing you it's being ridiculous (ominous supermodels dressed in black hanging around? Ooooh, scary).The miniseries also lands us with two main characters - a relentlessly serious professor and a nun who would make Mother Teresa seem like a hedonist - who simply don't register (pity Bill Pullman, if not Natascha McElhone), leaving Michael Massee as a Satanic mass-murderer to prove that the Devil gets, if not the best tunes, at least the best lines; the dire job "Revelations" does can be summed up by a failure to care when our villain, having launched the plot by kidnapping and murdering Professor Pullman's young daughter, lures his unlikeable teenage son into his clutches (by way of a webcam fronted by a Christina Aguilera-type). And any series that casts John Rhys-Davies and fails to turn his entertaining pompousness to advantage is beyond hope; though you have to give them credit for casting Christopher Biggins as a Cardinal. (What with this and Hugh Laurie in "House, M.D.," NBC Universal wins the Most Unusual Use Of British Actors Award by a mile.) Sadly, such little plusses are cancelled out by all the minuses - following the endless teasing, the last two hours try to crank up the action, but it's all for naught; and the abrupt, anticlimactic, cop-out of an ending just in case enough Bush voters tuned in to make an ongoing series viable will irritate the converted and atheists alike. (Fortunately, US audiences tuned out in droves from hour one onwards, meaning that the story will never be either drawn out endlessly or continued. No wonder they say "God bless America.") For a truly powerful look at the Apocalypse coming to pass today, see "The Rapture" - "Revelations" is not only not as effective as "The Omen," but it's not even "Omen IV: The Awakening." If nothing else, this does prove once and for all that when it comes to standing in for other countries, the Czech Republic is the Canada of Europe.Father, forgive Stillking Films, Pariah and NBC Enterprises, for they know not what they do.