"Fallen" Movie Review: Recycling a bad Book

All hope is lost for the film industry who is so fond of making s*t out of novels. But this time around, not so much.

Three of the four books preceding the 
last novel of the series, titled "Rapture." 

"Fallen" is a film adaptation of the novel of the same name written by Lauren Kate and directed by Scott Hicks. It narrates the story of Lucinda Price; perpetually reincarnated by a cursed love with fallen angel Daniel Grigori, who has yet to choose the side of Heaven or Hell.

Apparently, young adult (YA) novels are following the same formula in the romance fantasy genre where boy meets girl yet an otherworldly force keeps them apart.

That's what Lauren Kate's "Fallen" is about in a nutshell, so it would not be surprising if the film takes pursuit of the odorous yet much-loved trail that the book leaves behind.

But despite walking the same path as the book, the film is a painting that is slightly different from its model. It must be viewed as a film instead of a book adaptation.

The film starts with a triple negative. There is a narrator that gave away the main plot, another character who unnecessarily stated a lengthy description of the place where the story is situated (which makes the director lazy), and another character who had repeated all that was said in the introduction during a lecture in Philosophy of Religion.

Addison Timlin was the perfect match for the role of Lucinda "Luce" Price and Scott Hicks captured the necessary internalization of the characters that the story requires. The strengths of "Fallen" fell on the hands of the actors' portrayals and the inconsistent cinematography that made use of blurry visuals which did not work well in the film.

There were deficiencies on much needed small talk between Luce and other smaller characters that would have contributed to her development throughout the film, but it did not affect too much of the plot.

Another was lack of reason as to where Cameron's attraction towards Luce bloomed. Since the director chose not to hide the should-have-been secret origin of Luce, he should have taken advantage of highlighting the background of other key characters.

The production team did a great job at shifting into and the placing of flashbacks that affected Luce's sentiments of "knowing him for a long time." The timely scenes justified the unruly "attraction at first sight."

Still by the end of the second quarter of the film, there was lackluster interaction between the two lovers that did not spark a growth in their connection and therefore did not garner the audience's adoration. Daniel's fragile nature due to the repetitive cycles of Luce's death went unnoticed but on a second look can be appreciated.

Perhaps what made the film comparatively better than other YA novels-turned-film was the ethereal cinematography that captured the essence of the characters' connections from each other. It was a breathing hole after minutes of waiting for something to happen, and spectacularly breathtaking if executed correctly.

Take for example (spoiler ahead) the scene where there was a fencing sparring match between Luce and Daniel, and how their emotions accorded to a deja vu that appeared each time their weapons clash. How their memories kept flowing in and how their present selves bent to the will of the past was beautiful, with a little bit of a let down in certain camera angles that can be fixed.

This well-executed scene built up Luce's determination of discovering the truth about her reincarnation. The height of emotion was passionate and intense; enough to provide relief to the viewer that it was cautiously directed to veer away from the antiquated style of cinematography evident in various film adaptations.

Moreso was how their wings were designed, which when Luce touched Daniel's felt like as if the viewer was also touching his. But the ethereal vision did not persist to the climactic action between Cam and Daniel as the effects became low quality thereafter. 

The conflict between the two was not properly set-up, nor was the role of Cameron in the story itself.

The film abandoned the bigger picture for the sake of letting the audience internalize the character. No depth on the greater scheme was expounded nor was there a clear picture of the greater conflict.

Moreover, the existence of the black clouds' was totally left out in the film. It was only on the last quarter of the film that Daniel identified these as "Announcers" and explained to Luce what it is for. But other than its role over the misfortunes of Luce's life before meeting Daniel and the others, there was none.

What the film lacked was the necessary weight of the problem to force viewers to the edge of their seats. Though they gave justice to the matter of reincarnation, the dialogue was a let down for points that could be surprising but was made obvious.

Additionally, there was a lack of attention towards characters who were given a few minutes of screentime yet seemed so vital in the plot. It distracts viewers of whether or not they have a role to play that will be a turning point. This distraction makes an inconsistent set of emotions instead of it piling up for the satisfaction of the climax, where a viewer might fall into bore instead. 

It was a lost opportunity to increase the quality of the film overall.

It has an ending that evidently will have several sequels similar to the novels but lacks the needed anticipation for one. Its plot is not thinned out to be compressed into one film but it would be unnecessary to keep it for too long. The question remains: Why is she so smitten with Cameron?

The Pink Merman 

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