Fallen - Le néphilim

I thought that Fallen was a great Movie the first time I saw it. It contained a interesting plot that always kept you wanting more. It's a story about a boy named Aaron who is an orphan. He just wants to have a normal life with his family. Aaron is an excellent student and has a specialty for languages. He also has a fascination for angels. One day he notices strange things are happening to him. For example he meets this homeless man who knows too much about him. He can speak a ton of languages he didn't even know, fluently. Now he starts to realize he can do these things for a reason. He has a purpose in his life, but he doesn't want to accept the fact that he has "special" traits and abilities that are very noticeable by "some" people. Now he must find out what is happening and why. Also he must fulfill his purpose on earth. Because earth depends on it.

I haven't read any of the Fallen books, but I'd like to take a look at one now. The movie was pretty entertaining. Paul Wesley was an unfortunate choice for the lead - he's one of those generic square-jawed types like the leads in the TV series Supernatural - but the rest of the cast was pretty good. The story was interesting and I just loved the dog, who was very funny and really caught the spirit of dogginess.

I'm not sure what to make of the show's bizarre mythology, it's sort of like that Broadway musical about the Wizard of Oz in which the bad witch turns out to be a good, misunderstood witch. Here, the good guy is a Nephilim (who are very bad guys, incidentally, in the TV series Hex) and God has sent angels to earth who are horrible and murder innocent people with abandon.

So I'm curious as to what sort of God we are expected to think put all this in motion. Is God a big picture kind of guy who sets things in motion and then sits back and lets them play out? Or did he have a plan and actually die and now it's up to everyone to manage as best they can? I'd be curious to know if it's as easy to come to the same conclusion by reading the books; perhaps they have a more detailed mythology that would allow for a different interpretation. But as angel movies go, this one doesn't really wind up putting God in a very kindly light (I've no objection to that, I just find it interesting).

I'll also go against one of the other critics here and say I thought Tom Skerrit was the best actor in the movie and also that I liked the huntress angel, who apparently was a guy in the books.

I'll try not to make this a horribly long winded rant, so please bear with me, but am I the only person who in fact read the books then became excited about the mini series only to cry when watching it? Not because the story is sad, or anything or the sort, but because they've ruined the plot and the beauty of the original? It became so bad that I couldn't even finish the watching it, and would hardy let my mom tell me what had happened. I just couldn't stomach it.

Verchiel is female, which had me blinking confusedly at my TV, and then everything that was to follow was just plain.. Outrageous. I found Aaron as a protagonist to be.. A disappointment, which is maddening, because in the books he is.. Very deep, and wonderful, and so many other beautiful things they didn't take the time to capture in the mini series. Sure.. I know they didn't have the time.. But honestly they could have done a much better job. They could have done him justice, they could have done the books, all the deep, rich and thoughtfully pieced together characters justice, but they just didn't.

I don't recommend this to anyone. The books, yes.. I love them, and they have many a wonderful moment, all that make a sort of sense that's hard to find anywhere else.

I watched this a few years ago and I just happened to come to this page and all i can remember about this series is how truly boring it was. I rarely remember bad films. I filter them out like boring days. Oddly though I remember how awfully dull this was. I knew it was going to be cheesy, I mean Angels and Demons and all that, but you never know with these things. You're always hoping it might be The Prophecy or maybe Constantine not great but good fun American Gothic. Fallen is just tedious all the way. Predictable generic characterization with a side order of poor stiff lifeless acting. You know those poor shows with lots of pointless meaningful poses and heartfelt nothings followed intensely lightweight and bad action. I vaguely remember one or two bits where you think oh this looks good and then .... oh no it's not. I force myself to watch it because I rented the series but I remember a feeling of relief when the DVD finally stopped. Like I said I don't remember bad films but it struck me odd that I remembered this feeling by the sense of relief I felt when it was over. Truly a bad one - you should watch it.

After Fallen aired, there was a promotion that sent me to a website called www.oculareffect.com - this professor is looking into an online object he calls the Oculus (www.00112358.net) - almost every week it updates with a strange symbol (just like the ones that Aaron Corbett sees burned into his skin!). Inside there is a puzzle that unlocks a vision of the past or the future - so far it has sent us to another nephilim called Faith Arella who has a weblog (www.faitharella.com) - on it she is chasing these symbols to meet people around the world. It's another story that's happening online during the break between now and the next episode of Fallen - it looks pretty cool and I've already registered for email updates.