Dark Power

I wanted to like this movie. I watched it till the end. I found it to be extremely lacking in continuity. Even the ending left me with a what the heck look on my face.

This movie clearly tried too hard to surprise the audience and by the end none of those surprises made any sense.

Where was the darkness? Where was the power? What was the big mystery? All those questions are pretty much answered by the time the second assassination takes place... and at that moment you find yourself HOPING that it isn't so, that there HAS to be more.

I give it a 4 out of 10 simply because Kristanna Loken is in it.

Dark Power is a film about a conspiratorial group like the Illuminati who have members in high places and low places and call on them when needed. When the powers that be decide they want to control an unnamed big city Mayor Kevin Dobson is assassinated right in city hall where he and a lame brain security guard are burning the midnight oil. It's the only time an assassination shown in a movie ever got laughs from me.

Kristianna Loken and Sean Patrick Flannery are the two FBI agents assigned to the case and they never develop any chemistry. The only emotion shown on the screen is sheer boredom.

Just why this secret cult/organization wants this city under its control is never really explained. Everybody involved with this one has done better work.

I am watching this movie thinking great start some intrigue we have a mayor under pressure and he gets whacked. Suddenly the body counts start racking up as fast as in Hot Shots part deux.

The characters are 1 dimensional, you never really care for them, Agent Driver is meant to be the hottie who loves kicking butt and taking names, how she goes to being vulnerable and a cheerleader of archer to being assigned a case by Brazilian CIA is well mind boggling, Archer is a broody detective, with a love for a hooker and you never really get to understand his drive, his mother is in bed apparently terribly sick yet looking more glamorous than the female lead.

Nothing ties together, the two agents have no real chemistry so how they end up hooking up is beyond me, the Illuminati angle is a stretch at best as suddenly the protagonist loses his grapefruits and looks pathetic at the end as he is finished on a cheap cars windscreen, all you keep thinking is get out of the way that car is not quick enough! He could have lit a cigarette got half way through and still seen the car coming. So you never empathize with him or care. Archer mysteriously disappears with just an email seeing he's out and the shoot out at the end comes from no where and by a coastline.

From my review you're probably thinking is not coherent well my friends that is because the film isn't. This film was made by a director clearly who has some sanity and knowledge of how to tell a story, but comes across as susceptible to cocaine psychosis with delusions of epic grandeur! Couple of hours of my life i will never get back watch Max Payne instead!

This minor action film aims higher than most, causing it to fail more obviously. The script poses a vast conspiracy that is supposed to give the story some importance, but is very poorly developed and resolved.

Most annoying to me was the haphazard construction of the story arc and its hanging plot threads, as badly handled as I've seen in ages. The two main characters: cop Flanery and Amazonian FBI agent Loken are dropped from a long stretch that focuses on the political subplot and bad guy, then reinserted for action sequences. Then near the end the star Flanery is lost completely with no explanation as the film's continuity deteriorates miserably. Tacked on ending focusing on Loken for the usual "sequelitis" prospect of a follow-up feature betrays a possibly unfinished film project here, also hinted at by the placement of the director credit mid-way through opening credits, and listing as a director the IMDb-listed second unit director Jeffrey Robinson.

DARK POWER is a political thriller with very few actual thrills. After the Mayor of Boston is assassinated, Special Agents John Archer (Sean Patrick Flanery) and Mila Driver (Kristanna Loken) are called in to get to the bottom of things. They soon uncover a secret cabal of illuminati-types that are up to no good, as more mayoral candidates are picked off like arcade targets.

The main problem with this movie is its jumpy, incoherent story line. Seemingly important events occur only to lead nowhere. Silly subplots -"John, I'm your father!"- are introduced for no intelligent reason. Then, the finale just sort of happens, shots are fired, the end. This is a puzzle that seems to be missing several pieces.

Flanery channels Mickey Rourke, while Ms. Loken contends with her stale, straight-out-of-central-casting female agent role.

In addition to to all of this, it's very tedious to watch! Painful, in fact...