Now Available to Own
Star Wars and Twilight enthusiasts who wouldn't mind a little more fantastical action in their Sunday School study are sure to feel right at home with this three part DVD, originally broadcast as an ABC Family Channel original miniseries.
Waking up on his eighteenth birthday to discover that he can understand every language under the sun and communicate with animals including his trusty canine sidekick Gabriel, the orphaned Aaron Corbet (Vampire Diaries star Paul Wesley) is in for an even greater shock when he learns that he is the half-human, half-angelic spawn of angels who have “fallen” to Earth from Heaven.
With his life threatened by fanatical seraphs who want to destroy every fallen angel they consider an abomination, Aaron soon finds himself thrust into an amazing adventure where good and evil collide in the unlikeliest of places.
When the one person he can trust is killed trying to protect him, Aaron goes on the run along with a former villainous angel determined to protect the high school wrestler whom he believes isn't merely another “Nephilim” (or angelic warrior) but the one and only Redeemer who has the power to send the fallen angels back to Heaven.
With a tone that's steeped more in science fiction than it is in the good book, Fallen may definitely appeal to fans outside the usual Christian market since traditional religious viewers may actually be turned off by some of the implications contained in the series including a final action that requires feeling some – as The Rolling Stones sung -- “sympathy for the devil." However due to its extraordinary length clocking in at roughly 250 minutes, it requires nothing but the truest of believers to stay tuned that long.
And while the special effects are definitely a low point, pulling you out of the role as interested viewer by calling attention to themselves a la the first Twilight, for at least the first part and more than halfway into the second installment, the plot-line culled from the series of novels by Thomas E. Sniegoski does keep you fascinated enough to avoid the eject button.
Yet despite the fact that Sniegoski's painstaking effort to create an entire mythology for the Fallen universe that necessitates you watch them back-to-back-to-back due to the complexity and various battles between different forces with different capabilities, it's still an acquired taste.
Furthermore, much like faith, Fallen will find those with the strongest resolve becoming the most riveted fans while those who are a little less devout may get pretty bored along the journey, left disinterested and counting all of the science fiction/fantasy influences –rather than bible stories -- we encounter along the way.
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FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I received a review copy of this title in order to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique.