Reign of the Gargoyles (2007) Reviews

• Ridiculous

  Enchorde2009-12-04

  Recap: A thousand years ago, some pagans summoned Vorthorn, lord of the gargoyles, and unleashed his terror on the world. They managed to defeat him, but now a secret Nazi commando has awoken him again. Now it is up to some American flyers and British airborne rangers, trapped behind enemy lines to defeat him once again. Comments: The only thing that saves this movie is the realization that it must have been a low budget production designed to fill time on a the Sci-Fi Channel. Because otherwise, this was seriously bad. The idea behind the story is ridiculous, evil Nazis summoning flying demons that are even more evil. Which naturally leads to that the American Bomber flyers happen to find themselves in the middle of it. Unfortunately they don't have any good CGI to support the story, or distract the audience with some spectacular scenes. The monsters are very plastic, moving stiffly and just looking awkward. What is worse is that now and again the actors interaction with these CGI monsters are completely out of sync. Sometimes they face the completely wrong way, when a two meter monster stands behind them screaming. Some few known faces surprisingly appeared. It was a long time ago Joe Penny and John Ashton where in the big titles. And it shows why. But it was nice, maybe the best part of the entire movie, to remember their prime days. Otherwise, Stay clear. 3/10

• Nazis... forget the Nazis.

  lost-in-limbo2008-08-19

  I guess it could've have been worse. The straight-to-TV presentation 'Rein of the Gargoyles' mildly entertains, but artificially dodgy CGI effects and pompous dialogues really do shoot it down. Bad computer visuals are one thing, but that script had me giggling and groaning at the same time. Too many random inspirational speeches, than explanations about the topic at hand or that of the Nazi's involvement in the occult had me wincing. The concept behind the film (An American airborne crew involved in WW2 in Eastern Europe find out that they have more to worry about than Nazis when they encounter Gargoyles, and join forces with resistance fighters to achieve the sacred spear that vanquished these gargoyles centuries ago) has something strong to go on, but alas it's given weak treatment and slaps in a stew of war clichés. Soon the mythological side is drowned out, and the interest begins to peter out. I can't knock its spirit though, and the locations and time period was well-shaped in presenting a dreary, war-torn backdrop. Performances fair up with no-one really standing out or overplaying it. However those accents (namely the Germans) were terrible, as if they were straining too hard. Joe Penny was dependably stalwart and Wes Ramsey is fine as the go-getter. No one really takes it entirely serious (even the script), but it doesn't fall away for any cheap laughs or a lighter tone of self-consciousness. The action is slight, and small. Sadly the gargoyles cop the brunt of it. Too little screen time, same for those Nazis who brought them to life. Sometimes the vigorous activity felt like something out of a video game, as the camera bobbed up and down. Moments do work, like atmospheric imagery in a graveyard. But really it's non-effective and flaky, despite its efforts. An okay time-waster… nothing more.

• Nice idea but botched execution

  lorenellroy2007-10-03

  Given the well documented interest of the Nazi party hierarchy in the occult -Hitler and Himmler especially -it is a minor pity that so few supernaturally themed movies or science fiction movies have taken this as a starting point ."The Keep" , a pretentious rambling Michael Mann movie and the altogether better if more modest Trancers apart it remains a relatively unexplored area for genre cinema.Reign of the Gargoyles does tackle this subject and makes a decent if somewhat undercooked stab at it Nazi scientists are able to resurrect stone demons and set them loose in an attempt to sabotage Allied attacks on the Central European heartland .An American aircrew is dispatched to try to discover what is going on ,and are brought down by an attack of these winged demons .They combine with a small local partisan band to destroy the creatures ,and this involves locating a sacred spear from the grave of a long dead knight who had originally imprisoned the demons some time in the Middle Ages The problem is a lack of quality in the special effects ,which are workmanlike rather than exceptional and a cast of unknowns whose talent is such they are likely to stay that way .The script is underpowered and allows for little or no character development The location photography is good however and makes good use of the bleak ,wintry landscape to give an eerie and edgy look to the picture A bigger effects budget and sharper scripting would have made this a better movie .As it is ,what we have is an okay picture which just fails to do justice to its premise

• Reign of Fire meets SS Doomtrooper :)

  siderite2007-10-01

  There is hardly anything left to say; the title says it all. Crappy CGI (a bit better than average for SciFi channel) meets silly cardboard characters. And cardboard wins because CGI is virtual! It's like one of those Santa Claus and a smart beautiful blonde jokes. Anyway, with the limited, but larger than average budget they could have chosen one of the thousands of good scripts floating out there. No, they chose a story where German sadists try to kill brave Americans helped by the beautiful French resistance girl. Oh, and there are gargoyles around. Puh-lease! Bottom line: total waste of time. Not bad enough to count. Not good enough... for anything ;)

• A baffling movie

  Fatherandersonthepaladin2011-04-27

  This movie really is just baffling. It has a few good scenes, and honestly, I'm usually a sucker for any movie set in WWII, but I'll make an exception for this one. First off, the actors have the acting ability of a cardboard standee. That just makes for a horrible movie no matter what you do. Second, there are inexplicable mistakes in the form of anachronisms that just blow it straight out of the water (example: the French Resistance girl somehow magically possessing a Mosin Nagant carbine (never available to France, or anywhere other than Finland and Russia during WWII), the Sten guns firing from a closed bolt, the SAS uniforms being completely wrong, and the MP40's with a 2mm bore diameter). Did I mention the use of a MORTAR round to take down a plane? How about the fact that the Germans, confronted by an enemy, wait until he picks up a discarded MP40 and starts shooting at them before they attempt to do anything to stop him (and yes, they're standing there, weapons ready, staring at him the whole time)? Overall, if you need a decent laugh at the expense of some Nazis, I'd recommend this movie. Otherwise, I'd recommend avoiding it like the plague.