The Watchers: Revelation

This is an ironic watch for me. I love bad Christian genre movies and this has it all; the worst acting I've ever seen and heavy handed self righteous messaging. So I knew it was a likely thumbs up for me. But I can't give a high review solely based on a movie's cathartic irony.

Other reviews are correct. The story is better than most Christian Scifi not based on the rapture.

But the acting... Good luck.

An archeological dig at Cahokia burial mounds in southwest Pennsylvania manifests a tablet linked to the Anunnaki, supposedly technologically advanced extraterrestrial beings who interact with world leaders, including the President of the USA. As their true nature and plan is exposed, they come after those responsible, including a 9 years-old prodigy.

"The Watchers: Revelation" (2013) is an Indie costing only $50,000. "Beyond the Darkness," aka "Heaven's War" (2018), was actually shot before this, but it took 7 years for it to be released due to how long it took to add the CGI effects (which were done really well for a non-blockbuster). I mention that movie because this one is cut from the same cloth, just with less funds. Despite that, the effects are certainly serviceable.

The people complaining about the acting must not have seen many spare-change Indies because I thought they did a respectable job for no-names. Remember, when you only have $50,000 to work with, you have to get the shot done and move on. You can't wait around for the perfect delivery and so forth because time means money in this biz.

At the end of the day, this is a watchable low-rent sci-fi movie with an interesting story that includes exposition on the Sumerian Anunnaki and Igigi. Kaitlin Lory does well as the blonde protagonist, Sarah, and Carissa Dallis is precious as the girl, Kara.

It runs 1 hour, 30 minutes, and was shot in areas south of Dayton, Ohio, including Kettering, Trenton and Hamilton.

GRADE: B-/C+

I did not watch any of the other "watcher" movies, so no idea on this one. The Religious theme is fine, very shallow and one verse lines. The Plot others are saying is good...nope. Plotline is thin, while I could follow the basic plot, their attempt at complexity fell very short. The attempt to tie the Anunnaki into the movie fell short. Only mentioned a few times. Then the alleged "tablet" was supposedly in Cuneiform but wasn't. IT has some cuneiform, but only a bit, especially when "Sumerian" was mentioned, I expected a WHOLE cuneiform tablet, not a few slashes. Then there is confusion amongst the igigi, Anunnaki and B'nai Elohim. Mostly though it is who is igigi and who is Anunnaki, while they are denying that they are, but they are, but they aren't type of thing. It is almost like the screenwriter FORGOT what they had written in scene 3 and suddenly changed their mind and wrote something completely different for scene 5 for the same character. This is not even a Grade B, but D or even further into the alphabet. Even the Sci-fi channel movies are better and THAT is saying a Lot. Fight scenes were shallow and very elementary school play. Ending much to be desired. IF you want just an inane movie to just have some noise in the background, movie is perfect for that.

Like other comments expressed here, I stayed for the story, which was good. The little girl was actually capable of playing a charming and believable character. Everyone else in this movie seemed to be on Qualludes and barely able to read in a wooden monotone off a script written by a High School student. It was really that bad.

I don't know too much about filmmaking, but I know even small production are very expensive. Surely the investors were privy to some of the intitial scenes? They should have pulled and replaced whoever was in charge of the "acting". What a waste of a good storyline. !¡

Great story and plot Low budget Terrible acting Worth watching, though!