Gabriel Fun!

[staringiscaring]

Angels with Dirty Faces

It’s nothing close to the grace that she felt as a righteous warrior in the service of the Light. It’s expensive, dirty, and her arm has more tracks than the busted train station downtown. Amitiel would have turned her nose up at it and felt only pity for those addicted to its lulling and numbing charms. Jade doesn’t give a fuck even when she is being fucked because that needle is the only thing between her and the edge. That needle keeps the world at bay, shrouds this shit city in a fog, and makes the Funhouse blur to nothingness so she can forget what she was, who she is, and where the fuck her Maker abandoned her too. Jade still says her prayers but now its for her next hit. 

    Review: 
    
My long awaited review of Gabriel! It’s a movie that made me sad because Andy Whitfield is just so talented, handsome, and throws himself into the role which is definitely set up to be a trilogy. It’s a bummer because as the beginning of a trilogy it really works. I hope that the creators think about continuing it as a graphic comic. It has that cool comic feel to it already.

Gabriel is a movie made on a shoe string budget yet still looks like a decent multimillion B-movie production. The crew snuck into abandoned buildings and lots to shoot various scenes so it really works as an authentic quasi-hell scape. Shout outs to the cinematographer and freelance animators who gave a lush, dark supernatural flair to the production. The actors all went full into the drama too so it’s a film that rises above its limitations. Besides Andy, I really enjoyed Sammael as a character. Those two really anchored the movie as the binary players in this purgatorial drama. At first look, Sammael reminds you of the lead singer of Quiet Riot (it’s the hair or something), but the actor brings a slow-simmering mesmerizing darkness to the role. He apparently wandered around at night in costume to prepare for the role. His acting makes you wonder what he thought about in those nightly jaunts. Uriel is also a stand out character with his actor giving an intense performance as a broken down Arch Angel.

The only disappointing thing about the movie is that it would have been cool to have seen it stretched out more. It’s like they knew that their might only be one so they tossed plot points that could have been staggered through the whole trilogy plot into one movie. Maybe it’s just because I liked Sammael as a villain and I loved the twist at the end that I’d love to have seen the same character in the sequels. I  did wish that we had gotten more backstory on Gabriel and Michael before the ending because it would have given the final twist more oumphf. Though, a future for the series is doubtful given the death of Andy Whitfield but the film does stand alone on its own merits. Keep your fingers crossed for a graphic novel or something. 

Comments

[itches]

*claps*

Best Christmas, ever.

[staringiscaring.livejournal.com]

Ha, I hope so! Sorry about the wait!

Merry Christmas, buddy!

[itches]

Meh, that wasn't a wait. I once promised someone that I would write them a Christmas themed story for Christmas. Took me two years.

Also I genuinely enjoyed your drabble.

[staringiscaring.livejournal.com]

I remember that. Ha, well, good then. I watched the movie like five times with different people but I couldn't be arsed to write a review until school was done. I wanted to write more than 'I liked it. Andy had pretty tattoos and that demon pimp creeped me out a lot. It tripped my friends out when we were stoned.'

Thanks! Jade was a character that I wasn't especially moved by the first time I watched it, but I found her more compelling in later watches. I edited the ending a bit.

[itches]

Drug assisted amazement aside, what did the others think of it?

[staringiscaring.livejournal.com]

They thought it was pretty heavy in parts especially since Andy is gone. They were shocked that it had a $200,000 budget. The funhouse pimp fallen was agreed to be creepiest and all agreed that Sammael looked like a 80s hair metal frontman. Jade ended up with the nickname Duck lips.

[itches]

$200k with an asterisk, people worked on a deferral basis. The $200k was upfrount money.

[staringiscaring.livejournal.com]

Thats still pretty cheap!

[ericajean1010.livejournal.com]

You are a doll to have written this. I absorbed this movie. It's hard for me to watch given my beliefs, but putting that aside, this is actually one of my favorite movies. Andy seems to always give his characters his all and makes it so believable. He is mesmerizing to watch. Not all actors are that way. But there are some out there that are.

The part that makes it hard for me is when Michael says to Gabriel - "Slaves to a higher purpose. Tell me, what is the point, of being created, just so we can serve someone else's wishes?" That was hard for me. But that is another subject. In all, I loved this movie, and I listen to the soundtrack often, actually. Good soundtrack!

Duck lips. Glad I am not the only one to think this. They kept distracting me from her, and her character.

Graphic novel would be awesome for this. It does have that feel too it. I would be one of the first to purchase it! For being filmed cheaply, it still pulled me into it's world visually. They did an outstanding job with what they had. A trilogy would have been epic!