This is one of these movies that gets frequently broadcast on the SyFy Channel . You can understand why someone might do their best to avoid watching it but as so often happens there's absolutely nothing else on so it was either REIGN OF THE GARGOYLES or having to watch a movie I'd seen several times before and had commentated on it on this site . After all I'm amongst friends at the IMDb and I can always share my opinions amongst my friends here
The general consensus on this page is that REIGN OF THE GARGOYLES is better than most of the films produced by the SyFy Channel which is admittedly faint praise but some people have qualified this by stating it's almost a good film in its own right and contains a couple of good scenes . There's certainly contains the bare bones of a good film and one wonders if a film containing some downed pilots and SAS soldiers behind enemy lines during WW2 might have been better pitched to one of the major Hollywood studios . Indeed a cross genre mixing war and monsters starring Jeremy Renner , James McAvoy and Olga Kurylenko probably wouldn't break box office records but it'd certainly make a great night out at the multiplex . This SyFy production is let down by two major things
First of all is the budget . You want flying Gargoyles , squadrons of planes and explosions . No problem for a Hollywood studio with a lot of cheque books , but a very big problem for SyFy who can only realise these sequences via ... go on guess ? I'll give you a three letter clue - CGI . The unfortunate thing because there's so many CGI sequences the budget for it is spread very thinly which means it's often worse than you see in this type of production . It also seems to bite in to other aspects such as sequences where characters fire their weapons is it's patently obvious that the actors are just shaking their props around
The second thing is the amount of errors made concerning military matters and timeliness .Early a character talks of UFOs and flying saucers terminology that wouldn't have existed in 1944 . We also see SAS troopers with British Parachute regiment insignia and berets and over-sized B-17 Flying Fortress interiors where the crew have no need for oxygen and are happy to fly 20,000 feet in dress uniforms without suffocating or succumbing to minus 20 degree temperatures
In summary REIGN OF THE GARGOYLES is a mediocre film but one recognises that with a bigger budget and a bit more thought this would have been a fairly enjoyable piece of pop corn entertainment . Perhaps if Hollywood is thinking of doing a mixed genre film featuring monsters and the war with an international cast they could watch this film seeing the obvious contrast in what works and what doesn't
The general consensus on this page is that REIGN OF THE GARGOYLES is better than most of the films produced by the SyFy Channel which is admittedly faint praise but some people have qualified this by stating it's almost a good film in its own right and contains a couple of good scenes . There's certainly contains the bare bones of a good film and one wonders if a film containing some downed pilots and SAS soldiers behind enemy lines during WW2 might have been better pitched to one of the major Hollywood studios . Indeed a cross genre mixing war and monsters starring Jeremy Renner , James McAvoy and Olga Kurylenko probably wouldn't break box office records but it'd certainly make a great night out at the multiplex . This SyFy production is let down by two major things
First of all is the budget . You want flying Gargoyles , squadrons of planes and explosions . No problem for a Hollywood studio with a lot of cheque books , but a very big problem for SyFy who can only realise these sequences via ... go on guess ? I'll give you a three letter clue - CGI . The unfortunate thing because there's so many CGI sequences the budget for it is spread very thinly which means it's often worse than you see in this type of production . It also seems to bite in to other aspects such as sequences where characters fire their weapons is it's patently obvious that the actors are just shaking their props around
The second thing is the amount of errors made concerning military matters and timeliness .Early a character talks of UFOs and flying saucers terminology that wouldn't have existed in 1944 . We also see SAS troopers with British Parachute regiment insignia and berets and over-sized B-17 Flying Fortress interiors where the crew have no need for oxygen and are happy to fly 20,000 feet in dress uniforms without suffocating or succumbing to minus 20 degree temperatures
In summary REIGN OF THE GARGOYLES is a mediocre film but one recognises that with a bigger budget and a bit more thought this would have been a fairly enjoyable piece of pop corn entertainment . Perhaps if Hollywood is thinking of doing a mixed genre film featuring monsters and the war with an international cast they could watch this film seeing the obvious contrast in what works and what doesn't