Darklight

This could easily be a sci-fi channel pilot as it has all the earmarks of a Hallmark presentation with a little blood thrown in so they can call it sci-fi.

The plot is hokey, the execution is so-so, and there is no redeeming social value.

The only reason most people purchase this movie is that it contains Shiri Appleby as Lilith / Elle; she has indeed come a way since her original Taco Bell commercial days. However, one person does not make a movie.

The plotline is a distortion of myth with a little sci-fi tossed in to create a winged creature with a cute smile that shall protect humanity from evil creatures with snarly smiles.

This movie passes time for people that do not have anything better to do.

Sweet Shiri is all grown up now and still quite lovely, but she must have been desperate for money to do this film. It's clearly low-budget. There's something wrong with the audio. It's like everyone is speaking through some sound filter. Their voices just don't sound right. This movie is so bad only a heterosexual male fan of Shiri would want to see this film. Richard Bergi, John De Lancie, Richard Gnolfo, and David Hewlett do their best to support this lousy production, but still seeing and watching Shiri is the only incentive to continue to the end of the film. I have no idea why this movie is Rater R. The Cable Guide referred to this as a Comedy, Romance and Horror flick. It wasn't funny or scary to watch.

Although I agree with the earlier posting about Darklight not having much direction, I think it was initially a pilot for a series that never got greenlighted. It was like the producers had several episodes that they had to piece together to salvage what was funded in startup. The effects were good for TV -- we can't expect CGI in everything. I thought the initial storyline of Adam's first wife, Lilith, seeking to be absolved from her initial sins was a good premise. I would like to see the movie developed into a mini-series, if not a series. It could be something like 'Angel' with a flawed key figure trying to pay for the sins of the past.

A secret society called the Faith is battling evil. Lilith is Adam's first wife who considered herself an equal. She was banished from Eden and turned into a demon by God. Anders Raeborne injects himself with Darklight and turns into a near-indestructible demon. Elle (Shiri Appleby) is a woman with no memories attacked by the demon. William Shaw (Richard Burgi) recruits her revealing that she is actually Lilith under the control of the Faith. He trains her to use her demonic powers for good while trying to deal with her evil past.

As a concept, I really like trying to make the Biblical Lilith into a dark superhero. There is great potential but this is a fail. This was a Sci-Fi TV movie. I don't know if it was meant to be a TV pilot and it certainly fails as that in many aspects. As a simple TV movie, it doesn't really work either. There is way too much background to stuff into the start. The CGI and the special effects are fair for a TV movie. Shiri Appleby is a little stiff considering what her character has to play with. The movie doesn't have good flow. It feels like first-time writer/director Bill Platt was trying to run through a list of plot points. This doesn't work.

Shiri Appleby was adorable, sexy and cute in "Roswell". However her luminescent presence in this stinker couldn't save it. What the hell was THAT plot all about? A biblical backstory with so many plot loopholes you could drive a truck through them. When you create a mythology (especially using biblical references) delve a little more into what makes it tick and why.

Good actors are wasted. David Hewlett and John DeLancie were all wasted (Hewlett mostly, looking much thinner than he does in Stargate Atlantis). I knew this was going to suck when Hewlett's character takes off his shirt and puts on a black face mask to get an injection! LOL! Either the director sucked or the editor did, there are just too many scenes where the action looked very disjointed and out of place. Either a lack of coverage for the editor to work with or a crappy shooting style, you know a movie is bad when the action scenes from a student film are better choreographed. Also the CGI was about the same caliber as a good video game .... but this is a feature film! IN a movie, the CGI has to be better than something you'd pick up at a gamestore! The battle between Lilith and the Demonicos was laughably bad! Usually films that just seem stilted and weird are foreign films made with American actors where the director was suffering from cultural schizophrenia (i.e. being pulled into two different directions at the same time.) This movie had an American Director (albeit with little experience). He might get better in the future (either that or the suits came in, took it out of his hands and ruined it ... always a possibility!) The movie "could" have been good, with a decent script, better direction, better effects, better editing .... the ending was a setup for a sequel or series, but right now I wouldn't bet on it.