Review of Revelations

Introduction

`Revelations`, a six-part mini-series, shown on NBC in the US in 2005 and later that year on Sky One in the UK; it was created by David Seltzer, who is primarily known for writing `The Omen`.

Bill Pullman plays Dr. Richard Massey, an atheist whose daughter was murdered by Isaiah Haden, a satanist (Michael Massee). Sister Josepha Montafiore (Natascha McElhone) is convinced that, as predicted in the Bible, the world is coming to an end, and recruits Dr. Massey to prevent armageddon and the birth of the anti-Christ. Haden is in jail, awaiting trial, yet his malevolence is not contained by mere physical boundaries as he attempts to orchestrate the `End of Days`.

Video

A very good anamorphic transfer with excellent colour definition and contrast, as you would expect from such a recent show. The show features some beautiful locations, all of which are filmed well and look great, although the research department deserves a severe reprimand for mistakenly labelling the National Gallery as The British Museum!

Audio

The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo soundtrack is perfectly clear although the absence of a 5.1 track is puzzling, given that TV shows such as `The Sopranos` and `24` were being released with 5.1 tracks five years ago.

There are no subtitles.

Features

The `Bonus Featurette` is really only an elongated trailer, running at a paltry three minutes.

The `Deleted Scenes` contain deleted and extended scenes that were presumably cut either for time or found to be surplus to requirements in editing. I didn`t find them particularly illuminating or enjoyable and the sound quality was poor.

Conclusion

Not having seen this on TV, I didn`t know what to expect, so had a look at the plot outline on IMDb and found the words `nun`, `murder`, `satanist` and `apocalypse` - sounds good, I thought. As far as plot and character dynamics are concerned, imagine a melting pot into which has been thrown `The X-Files`, `Millennium`, `The Da Vinci Code` and `The Omen`, and you`re pretty much there.

The theme of two mismatched people on the run is hardly new, so a sceptic and a believer on the trail of a satanic killer seemed a clichéd Mulder and Scully clone. Equally trite was Professor Lampley (John Rhys-Davies), who comes straight from the screenwriting character list as `brilliant [insert occupation here] on the end of a phone whenever protagonist needs help`. In this case Lampley is Massey`s astrophysicist mentor at Harvard and has a class of brilliant students to assist him, and therefore Massey.

Whilst entertaining and perfectly watchable, this doesn`t have the writing or creativity of `The X-Files` and when you have Christopher Biggins playing a cardinal and Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit, in a prominent role as one of Haden`s followers, you know the casting director has had a bad day!

The material was largely covered in `The Omen` and the frequent biblical quotations (which I imagine preceded the commercial breaks) intended to give the show a gravitas and intelligence that is largely lacking. If you can accept the premise of a nun and an astrophysicist jetting around the world to prevent a satanist from bringing forth the anti-Christ, then I think you`ll find this very enjoyable and at least worth a rental.