Hi, I actually signed up so that I could review this movie. This contains spoilers.
The first two thirds of the movie are actually pretty good. It had my attention and I was at the edge of my seat waiting to see what happened next... then, disaster struck..
OK, let's not get ahead of ourselves quite yet. You all probably know the plot by now: a young skeptical priest (who is having second thoughts on becoming a priest) has been assigned to go to the vatican and participate in a new exorcism program. His 'mentor' per se is Anthony Hopkins character. The thought behind this was that Michael (the young priest) would be convinced that the devil and exorcisms are real because Anthony Hopkins is a specialist in this area and by studying under him he would be exposed to all of this. And, of course, he was!
So, at this point in the movie things have been developing pretty well... Michael is still skeptical even though he has witnessed one exorcism case (yes, just one), he has a potential love interest, and Father Hopkins (as I've forgotten his official character's name) has shown the audience that he is the real-deal exorcist.
We all know from the trailer that Hopkins' character becomes possessed by the end of this movie. So, about 2/3rds through the film Anthony Hopkins is out treating a young boy who is possessed. Michael is along as well. Anthony Hopkins asks to see the boy's pillow and pulls out a frog, proceeds to mumble a prayer, and then casts it into the home's furnace. The two priests leave and walk back to Anthony Hopkins' home. In the courtyard of his home, Michael notices a lot of the same type of frogs that were found in the pillow. Hopkins says he isn't feeling well and then goes to bed. So begins his possession.. YES, this is it.
Then there is a scene where Hopkins walks out to a small observation point overlooking something (the ocean, a village maybe?) and is seemingly wearing nothing but a trenchcoat. Then he proceeds to smack a small child and walk away. OK, we get it, he's possessed and isn't his self.
When Michael comes back to Hopkins' home he realizes that he is possessed. So, with the help of his lady friend (I forget why she's with him) he goes ahead and exorcises the demon from Anthony Hopkins. Then the movie basically ends.
Wow, OK, so just reading the plot may make it seem like a decent movie. And, it is for 2/3rds of the way through. However, the last 1/3 is SO BAD that it RUINS THE ENTIRE FILM!!! It feels like up until the point where Hopkins becomes possessed lasts about 2 hours (I'm sure it's not that long, but that's how it felt), which wasn't a problem because I thought things were developing well. Once Hopkins becomes possessed until the final credits felt like 20 minutes. The climax was pretty much non-existent for me. Couple things I have gripes with:
1 - Early in the movie Anthony Hopkins tells Michael that possessions can sometimes last months, even years, of regular exorcisms before the demons are fully gone (obviously it's more detailed than that in the dialogue), however, he goes from being fine one day to being fully possessed in what, to me, is depicted as overnight. A week at the most. Basically, he was fine one scene, and then out to lunch the next. Couldn't we have used the previous 2 hours of the movie to develop this instead of rushing it within 5 minutes?
2 - I understand symbolism and all, but frogs??
3 - Based on how the film depicted things, Michael had witnessed Hopkins' character perform 3 exorcisms (2 on a young woman and the 1 on the young boy). Yes, he witnessed them. The film never portrayed him having any practice before exorcising the demon from his mentor. Now, we're lead to believe that this demon possessing Hopkins is Ba'aal, one of the most powerful demons around. Does it make sense that a person who has never performed an exorcism before could pull this off successfully? Not to me. Especially since earlier in the film, Hopkins had given a more intense exorcism to the young lady and boy that weren't as successful as Michael's. Seriously, Michael gave a very weak effort here. Either the director didn't get enough from his actor, or it was bad casting. This is THE moment of the movie and it fell flat on its face.
4 - Cheesy dialogue as the movie reaches its end AND cheesy 'Harry Potter' CGI special effects - look for it at the end, it's there.
To me, this movie had potential until the finale, and it failed in jaw dropping fashion. Bad dialogue, and NO development. I'm betting the editing removed a lot of character deveolopment between the second third and last third of the movie. The editing crew should be ashamed. Normally I'm not a movie snob or anything but there were some serious film class 101 issues going on here, and I don't even know what film class 101 teaches.
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