The Reaping (2007)
Saturday, 05 May, 2007 07:16:42 AM
Extra Details: IMDB
Movie Mad Review:
I reluctantly went to watch `The Reaping' the other night, expecting crap but hoping for something better.
Katherine Winter (Hilary Swank) is a college professor at LSU who doesn't believe in miracles and goes around the world debunking them.
She lost her faith when her daughter and husband were killed in Sudan when she was a newly ordained minister on her first mission.
Whenever Katherine is called to investigate a miracle, she is able to prove that what people believe is a miracle can be explained using scientific facts and no divine intervention has occurred.
Her next case is in her own backyard in Haven, Louisiana. Doug Blackwell (David Morrissey), a schoolteacher, is asking for Katherine's help.
The river has turned to blood, and the townspeople believe that Loren McConnell (AnnaSophia Robb), a young 12-year old girl, has brought this plague upon the town.
They also believe that this is the start of the Biblical ten plagues that are about to occur in Haven. Katherine and Ben (Idris Elba), her partner, go to Haven to investigate.
At first Katherine is able to explain all the strange occurrences with science, but she soon comes to the realization that science can't explain all of them away.
Katherine must reclaim her faith to fight these evil forces.
The storyline is a simple story about a woman who has lost her faith and meets it head-on by regaining her faith to fight an evil cult.
From the previews you would think that this supernatural thriller would be scary, but you would be wrong.
For the first 20-minutes, you are absorbed in the movie, and then the pace slows down to a crawl, then builds up to a spectacular ending.
The CG special effects of the ten plagues were visually interesting, but that is about all there was. The movie did not lure me in and scare me as I had hoped.
The worst thing was that they wasted Hilary Swank's talents in this movie.
The sad thing is we really want to believe that the plagues are genuine and not controlled by a 12 year old girl.
This movie had a glimmer of hope in being ok, but lost all that after 20 minutes, and picked up for the last 5, but lost any believability it had achieved.
Worth Watching ?
No, you will be very disappointed.
Worth Owning on DVD ?
Absolutely not, I would detest seeing this again.
Our Rating:
2 out of 5.
