Director: Brian Trenchard-Smith Starring: Michael York, Michael Biehn, Diane Venora, R. Lee Ermey, Udo Kier Certificate: - (UK), PG-13 (USA)
Plot
Estranged brothers Stone and David Alexander grow up separately but find themselves facing off against each other in preparation for Armageddon. Stone forms a world union amassing armies to take down any opposition; meanwhile David, now the US president refuses to join.
Spoilers ahead...
The late 1990s into the early 2000s were a curious time in Michael Biehn's career with some TV and movie choices perhaps not ones you might have expected during his earlier years. It's not clear if some of those choices were driven by a change in career aspirations or simply the need to put food on the table, perhaps a bit of both, but I have always assumed that this movie fell into the latter category of a well-paid job rather than a passion project.
The reviews online are not kind to Megiddo, but I nonetheless went in with an open mind. It has an impressive cast list, a decent budget and early on, I was optimistic the movie could fall into the treasured category of so bad it's good. Within the first five minutes, we're greeted by an angry lisping child called Stone attempting to set fire to his baby brother David, blaming him for killing their mother in childbirth. "It's been three months; it's time to get over it", his father hilariously reasons. Suddenly Stone is engulfed by some terrible CGI fire effects as the antichrist's spirit overtakes him. Don't you hate it when that happens?
Sadly it doesn't quite hold up to its early promise. Next, we're treated to several dull scenes as young Stone is whisked off to military school where he falls in love with a local girl named Gabriela, glares angrily at those around him and takes care of the school bullies by destroying them at a paintball match, literally in one case. All the while, we're reminded with lots of sinister music and scenes featuring the ever creepy Udo Kier as a guardian of hell, that this boy is bad, you know, just in case you forgot about the earlier attempted infanticide.
It's not until twenty-four minutes into the movie that we finally get Michael York and Michael Biehn playing the roles of Stone and David and oh wow, is Michael York having the time of his life here or what? He's hilariously camp and spends the next 90 minutes sashaying from scene to scene like a Shakespearian Satan.
When Stone finds out his father (David Hedison) plans to give away his fortune rather than leave it to him, it's goodbye daddy Satan in a terribly choreographed fight scene that sees the father being flung over a balcony. I say flung; he may as well have just climbed over himself. There's not a lot of contact going on here.
We soon have yet another flash-forward and Stone, now head of the European Union intends to form a one-world government under the guise of curing world hunger, drought and famine. However, there's resistance from the US for whom younger brother David is now vice-president and the drill sergeant from Full Metal Jacket (R. Lee Ermey) is president. With the US refusing to join, Stone uses his Satan magic to dispose of the president and ta-dah David is now president instead. It's time for good brother vs evil brother, the USA vs the rest of the world. This movie felt incredibly xenophobic to me in its creation of good vs evil. They may as well have added some boos every time Europe or Africa is mentioned and cheers for the US. Every adult actor apart from Michael also appears to have gone to the school of funny accents and cultural stereotypes.
With our good and evil set up, the end of time starts to draw near with plagues, tornadoes and earthquakes raining down on earth. Satan gets mad and screams at some poor Africans whilst some CGI lightning continues to cheapen this movie further with its general crappiness. The crowd scenes are particularly awful as they're obviously stock footage and not shot for the movie.
Satan/Stone/crazy Michael York releases footage to the world that shows David supposedly killing their father instead, so the FBI attempt to arrest the president. It's ok though, as he jumps in a helicopter before they can capture him and is off to fight in the war whilst spouting some ridiculous inner monologue and being proclaimed as a messiah after following some blind bloke into a random church. I'm sorry, what now? At this point in my head, I imagined this movie with Donald Trump in the role, casually grabbing a gun and wandering onto an Armageddon battlefield to shoot his brother. It's mad!
We have one final CGI treat when Satan emerges from Stone's body for the concluding battle and looks like something off a bad 90s computer game; it's so so poor. This movie had a $20 million budget; that's real money. The Terminator cost $6 million; where the hell did all that money go?? I refuse to believe Michael York costs that much to hire!
I'm sure I don't need to tell you that within the denouement God saves everyone, kills the baddies and the world lives happily ever after; well apart from all the dead people, but we'll brush past that minor inconvenience I guess.
So, let's discuss the good things about Megiddo. As always, I can't fault Michael Biehn; he puts in a top performance. I've always admired his ability to bring authenticity to his characters however bad the movie is. Whether that be due to pride, self-preservation or perhaps a bit of both, I don't know, but it works every time. The rest of the supporting cast is also commendable with their given dialogue. I haven't even mentioned Diane Venora as the antichrist's wife, Gabriela. She, in particular, has to work with some inferior material. The sets look pretty nice as well; it's just the CGI that really cheapens everything.
The few positive reviews I have seen appear to be from the most devoted Christians. It's not surprising, as it's full of 'Christianity is great' propaganda. If you are a devout Christian and believe that showing your non-religious friends this movie could help them see what they are missing; please don't. As an agnostic myself, sitting on that big ol' spiky fence of indecision, this is NOT the movie that's going to convert me.
How else did Megiddo: The Omega Code 2 go wrong? Well, apart from being a bit rubbish, it also didn't help that it opened ten days after 9/11 when much of the world probably wasn't feeling in the mood to pop to the local cinema for a Christianity lecture. I also couldn't help feeling some second-hand embarrassment for much of the dialogue; particularly the impassioned ain't America great speeches. I'm sure the message that the moviemakers were trying to convey was sincere and well-meaning, but it just ends up being a tangled mess of a movie. The only thing it teaches its audience is that there are far better movies out there to watch instead.
Conclusion
Megiddo: The Omega Code 2 appears to have been created to send out a biblical message that good will always triumph against evil under the guise of a high budget special effects movie, but it doesn't quite succeed. The cast all do their jobs well and some of the sets and scenery look legitimate with filming locations including Israel, Italy and Kenya. The CGI effects, however don't live up to what an audience expects from modern movies and the script is written in a way that is at times just laughably awful.
The director Brian Trenchard-Smith has a fascinating B movie resume (I have a particular soft spot for BMX Bandits which features pre-fame Nicole Kidman), so perhaps he had a bigger vision here that didn't quite play out as hoped. I'm also probably not the target audience this movie was aiming for, so my opinion is pretty meaningless, but it won't be one I'll personally watch again.
Megiddo: The Omega Code 2 is available on DVD in the USA and can be imported to the UK through Amazon.
IMDB: 4.0/10 Rotten Tomatoes: Critics = 10%, Audience = 45% (As of October 2021)
Dies? / Villain?
ALIVE! He makes it to the very last scene alive and well. / He is the ultimate hero here, he saves humanity!
What Does Michael Say?
"They spent $20 million on it and the special effects at the end of it… when I saw that I couldn’t believe it. It looked like somebody had taken a cartoon and cut it out of its comic book and laid it on top of the film. It was so bad, the special effects, the visual effects. $20 million and I think it ended up with that company grossing about $4 million back, but that was a disaster." - AICN Legends Interview August 2011
What Did This Movie Teach Me?
Shooting at a TV when a man you don't like appears on it doesn't kill that person.
Michael Biehn can't save every lousy movie.
Anything Else?
This movie is both a prequel and a sequel to the 1999 movie The Omega Code also starring Michael York.
Someone has uploaded a behind the scenes featurette from the VHS release which can be watched here. Everyone seemed so optimistic.
The movie made just over $6 million, so it did not profit. I can't see any evidence that it was ever released in the UK and seems pretty limited worldwide. Showing almost the entire world supporting Satan probably didn't help its cause.
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