Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

fedor8 In Purgatory demons and angels fight each other over souls. Sort of like "Blade Runner" meets "The Prophecy". I just have a few questions:1. The introductory captions state quite clearly that only one angel and one demon is allowed per cycle. And yet nearly all of the 14 demons and angels are present in Purgatory.2. Only one demon and one angel allowed? Let's say that was the case: does that mean there are actual rules to this tug-of-war game between the Horned One and God? If there are, then there must be a referee to enforce them. This begs the question: who is it?3. What are young kids doing in Purgatory? If humans don't hold children legally accountable for crimes why does God punish them for sins? What did they do: steal milk? Hit a friend on the head? Use "nya-nya-nyanya-nya" to taunt their friends in playgrounds?4. If you find yourself in Purgatory, surely you'd be HEAVILY inclined and motivated to be good - coz you found evidence of afterlife hence why would evil reign in the city? Shouldn't EVERY lost purgatorian soul be vying to get into the shiny place rather than the fiery place?5. Guns in Purgatory? Really? Now, how the hell did humans manage to smuggle guns into that place? Oh right... the Devil. He is the arms dealer probably.6. How can civilians be killed in Purgatory? Aren't they already dead and awaiting some heavenly tribunal or something to decide whether they go up or down? Where do they go next, another Purgatory?7. What a weird plot-twist: angel Michael had become the leader of Hell's minions. Not only that, but his identity wasn't known by God? Gabriel was sent to Purgatory WITHOUT knowing this crucial fact? So basically God doesn't even pay attention to what's going on in purgatory; I guess it's not a priority. Do Satan and God just send angels and demons and not check up whats going on there? At least occasionally?8. One would expect a female angel to be beautiful, but instead the pungent casting director gave us a nepotist, the irony being that even the demon blonde looks a lot better. Yes, on closer scrutiny nothing makes sense, but then again one is not supposed to let common sense get in the way of entertainment in those religious flicks. The plot moves quite slowly, this being a lengthy film, and the action scenes - whatever few there are - don't display much flash.

brchthethird There's been quite a few good films coming out of Australia in recent years, but this is sadly not one of them. I found about GABRIEL by looking at the filmography for the director Shane Abbess, after watching the trailer for his new film INFINI. Since INFINI looked pretty good (from the trailer, at least; it could end up being disappointing), I thought I should give this one a look see. Who knows? Maybe it could be decent? This movie fails on just about every level that matters. What it does get right, or at least makes it a little interesting, is extensive mythology it covers and a cool visual style. Unfortunately, those elements aren't terribly original and have been given better treatment in other films, like PRIEST (which still wasn't good), BLADE RUNNER and DARK CITY. The plot is kind of difficult to sum up, but I'll go ahead and try. Basically, Purgatory is the place where souls go after people die but haven't been judged yet (like in Catholicism). But in the film, there is a battle waged between Light and Dark that takes place in this realm, and currently Dark is winning. There's some rather complicated backstory at the beginning along with some narration, but I'd forgotten most of it in 15-20 minutes. That's how little I cared about what happened on screen. The worst part about it was how depressingly dull it was. Granted, this is a low-budget film, so I'm not ragging on it for that, but the color palette was too boring. The acting also wasn't great either. Although there was occasionally some moments where it felt emotionally honest/real, most of the time all of the actors talked in this ponderous manner that really didn't work at all. I suppose I should give credit where it's due, so for what it's worth the special effects weren't too bad for a low-budget film. Even the fight choreography and camera-work were pretty decent, although there were far too many closeups (again, probably to hide the budget). Despite the fact that they cribbed the visual aesthetic from a dozen other, better movies, this film doesn't completely discourage me from potentially seeing Shane Abbess' next film. GABRIEL is occasionally inventive, has more plot than it knows what to do with, but ultimately was just too boring to recommend.

alan rondal This movie looks great and everyone on the film needs to be commended for doing such a bang up job with so little money. Its good that Sony took the punt and threw some money in to finish the visual effects because it would have made this ambitious project so much lesser for it without all those finishing touches. To that end you can say that this isn't really a low budget film - not by Australian standards if the rumor of a 5 million injection from Sony is true. My big gripe about this film though is that it could have gone somewhere bad ass but apart from looking cool it pretty much spins its wheels the whole time. This could have been a bad ass angel kill kill kill film but there ends up being lots and lots of talking instead and a few inventive but quick action scenes. But if you're an Aussie buy it because these guys deserve to get their due.

gothbeast lemu After watching this you might want to take some time and think (again) upon the "rules" that govern the human nature. I think that our greatest flaws as human beings have been translated in a very suggestive way by using the symbols of "archangels" and "fallens", these hierophanies corrupted by a world of whoredom and drugs - things that induce fear and hate... In this world, they say, "even angels are afraid to walk"...What about the poor "inhabitants" which are only human...? They already surrendered, not knowing that there might be something better out there. They keep thinking that they are free, while few chosen ones are trying to really set them free... so they can choose...by free will! Well, it sounds much like this world... Great allegory.