It is hurt a little by some recasting.
The Prophecy II (1998)
Directed By: Greg Spence
Where to get it: Echo Bridge
The Prologue
Well, lets all get biblical again with the 1998 film The Prophecy II. A film that I really don’t think ever needed to be made, while not a perfect movie, the original was just fine on it’s on. But if we want to look for a major plus, that plus would come from the fact we get Christopher Walken again. And when he’s not busy telling a story about a watch he kept up his ass, I think watching him fly around as Gabriel is a good way to kill an hour and half of my free time. Because let’s be honest, even if the plot and the story isn’t THAT great, he’s at least always great to see no matter what.
The Movie
Gabriel returns to Earth to prevent the birth of a child conceived by one of his kind (the Angel Daniel) and one of God’s “monkeys” (a human woman – Valerie). The coming of this child has been prophecised by a monk, Thomas. When the Angel Daniel kills members of Gabriel’s army of angels, Gabriel instead employs the assistance of a teenage girl (Izzy) who has just committed suicide. Gabriel keeps her alive to assist him in his war against Daniel and the other angels which climaxes in a battle in Eden.
The story here is a bit weird, maybe even too weird. An Angel wants to impregnate a mortal so that it will have the angel stuff, yet free will like a human. Apparently this will give the good ones a bit of an edge over the bad ones. But when you boil it on down, the original one had Gabriel looking for an evil soul to get the upper hand, so let’s not focus much on that. It’s an odd one, but it’s not too far fetched I suppose when you think back to the last one, so let’s just let it be what it is and just focus on the best part of the original, the acting, and how that is this time around.
Elias Koteas is gone as Dagget, which I guess is OK since Dagget is hardly in here but the recast does hurt that part of it. Also, we have no Viggo Mortensen as the Devil, so we get a recast of that for about two lines of dialogue and a dark shadowy figure. That again kinda sucks. So, besides that we get the late Brittany Murphy in a small-ish role, Eric Roberts being Eric Roberts, and our lead is Miss Flashdance herself, Jennifer Beals. I’ve always found her to be attractive, but never really have been blown away by her performances. At least you can bet on Christoper Walken, ALWAYS bet on Christopher Walken.
So it’s not as good as the original, it’s not even as creepy or action packed (not that the first would have set the world on fire with that stuff anyway). But, it’s not horrible for a straight to video sequel. I even think they do try to toss in another message about faith in all of this, and it’s an OK one (and they get an A for effort). If he had kept some of the cast of the original to go with Walken it could have been about even. But due to the fact it doesn’t and just doesn’t seem to pack as hard as punch, I think I gotta say this one is OK, but a step below.
The Conclusion
Well it’s above average for movies of it’s type, but nothing to write home about outside of Christopher Walken. Now we have one more of these with Walken to go in the next little while. I think I may fear to see what happens when he is taken out of the picture starting at part 4. But maybe with three we can at least get a very watchable trilogy out of these none the less.
The Rating (6/10)
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