jessieswift Review of Revelation

Revelation (2001)

Anyone who thinks this movie is original really doesn't see a lot of movies, or TV, or read books

[3/10 · 13 May 2005]

This movie resurrects the spectacularly silly, and rather entertaining, conspiracy theories of the book Holy Blood, Holy Grail which have propped up conspiracy thrillers that think they're more intelligent than they really are for years, culminating in the inexplicable popularity of the Da Vinci Code. This film has all the requisite elements of such a thriller, Templar Knights and other shady secret orders featuring none other than Sir Isaac Newton, Merovingians, the blood line of Christ. While such theories are undoubtedly of an amusing entertainment value in themselves, they are not enough to sustain a film as badly acted and directed as Dan Brown's book is written, and the idea put forward by other comments here that this film is somehow novel and original is obviously ludicrous. The film's only real idea of its own is the notion that you could clone Christ from the DNA of the nails on the cross (possibly something even less likely to happen than cloning dinosaurs from mosquitoes trapped in amber) which at least creates a little food for thought to sustain you through the non-ending where the film, some might say fortunately, just stops. A couple of interesting images of horror such as skinned and crucified bodies or flaming corpses are enough to occasionally shock you out of your boredom and make you think of the director's potential to make a nasty little horror movie rather than this overblown nonsense. Definitely a movie worth seeing if you enjoy ridiculous conspiracy theories or the ironic pleasure of a badly acted and written spectacle, otherwise steer well clear of it.