Michael vs. Gabriel

Aside from blogging, kidnapping our neighbor's baby, singing in the bathroom, reading and experimenting in the kitchen, one hobby that I love doing the most is watching movies. I love era films, action, sci-fi and book adaptations and oftentimes critic if the film lived up to its book origin.

Anyways, I know of this one film that I would look forward to watching as it reminds me of this other Australian movie with the same plot but with the main characters playing reverse roles.

I would love to watch Legion, starring Paul Bettany, on the big screen January of next year.

The plot in the movie circles around humanity's apocalypse when God loses faith in mankind again, after the flood, and this time sends over His angels to exterminate our population. Then in his last-chance gambit, the Archangel Michael leads a group of strangers to a small diner to protect a young waitress, who may be pregnant with Christ in his second coming, from God's wrath.

What's interesting about the film is when Michael would face his fellow Archangel Gabriel, who was sent by God to do His bidding, in a fight over mankind. Seeing the trailer, I then remembered this Australian movie in 2007, Gabriel.

Gabriel is a supernatural action film set in purgatory where God will send His Archangels one by one to fight off the evil fallen to save the souls of its inhabitants. In the movie, Gabriel is the last Arc to reach purgatory after all Arcs, even their strongest Michael, have failed to defeat the fallen leader Sammael. He tries to look for the other Arcs and defeats Sammael's group of fallen but later on learns that Sammael was actually defeated by Michael who assumed the fallen leader's identity. Michael then tries to persuade Gabriel, his closest Arc friend, to join him and rule purgatory instead of taking orders from God. In the end, the war was between Michael and Gabriel.

What you should know though is that Michael and Gabriel are the most prominent of the angels, and are often mentioned together as the anonymous divine messengers cooperating in a task in the Bible narrative. Michael is made up entirely of snow and Gabriel of fire, and though they stand near one another they do not injure one another, thus indicating the power of God to "make peace in His high places." Michael is considered superior to Gabriel in rank and wherever he appears, the Holy Spirit is also bound to be found. Gabriel, on the other hand, is God's messenger on numerous missions and the constant defender of the Jewish people.

Although both films, even when Legion is not yet released, have been marked as cult movies because of their plots, I think beyond religion, we need to see the profound message both of the films brought us - Faith in the goodness of men. That Michael in Legion will sacrifice his seat in heaven for his faith in the unborn child and Gabriel in Gabriel, after defeating Michael, has brought light to purgatory and chose to "take a fall" and become a man to understand humanity.

Dark as both movies may seem, watching Legion and reviewing both films would be very entertaining.