Filmmaker Gregory Widen learned a little, I think, from his previous outing with Highlander: it's not enough to get Sean Connery and have ridiculous immortals and beheadings. You need some fresh ideas that can live past their shelf life of the 1980s without going into complete repetitive mode. With the Prophecy he has a sturdy script chronicling the lapse of faith with an ex-priest played by Elias Koetas and how he comes into the investigation of a series of crimes involving burnt up dead people and lots of signs pointing to a prophecy of thins involving the word "dark".

On the side of themes, things are fine. But he knew that his script needed some uplift and, as with Highlander, needed a star to carry it over past the genre fans. Christopher Walken was his key, and it's one of his true-blue "Walken-iest" performances. He's playing a supernatural creature of the underworld in the guise of himself, so he knows it's time to go to town, and he does. I can imagine Widen smiling to himself as he wrote such lines as "Study your Math, kids", wherein Walken could sink his teeth in and make it an awesome nutbar of a performance. He still brings the creepiness when he needs (in this case all he needs to do as Gabriel is to stare),but it's the superfluous sense of humor, a timing that might be deadpan if it weren't for the evil angle, and it works wonderfully.

The rest of the film is good, I should still say. This is one of those underrated 90s movies that has people who like it or don't, which is the way it goes sometimes (at the least, I would imagine, the first film has a better rep than the sequels, filling up a trilogy which is slightly inexplicable given the ending of this film). Actors like Virginia Madsen, Eric Stoltz, Adam Goldberg and Amanda Plummer take up very good space for what they need to do, but it's Viggo Mortensen who comes out on top as the most inspired casting after Walken. His scenes as Lucifer are tense but calm, if that makes sense, and he has that quality that one may have seen in De Niro in Angel Heart. He's so convincing as him that he makes his own a character that's been repeated countless times - and not just because of the "Mother's feces" line. He notches up the rank of a solid genre piece like the Prophecy into something of a kind of minor must-see - at least for those of us that will dig Mortensen in almost anything.

THE PROPHECY, the first in a series of films about fallen angels warring on Earth, is a hoot. It features some truly zany scenes, usually involving 'good' angel Eric Stoltz fighting against the forces of evil, and a stand-out performance from Christopher Walken who toplines as the angel Gabriel.

Walken is one weird guy, and he's never been weirder than in this film. Writer/director Gregory Widen gives Walken some great dialogue to play with, which adds immeasurably to the fun. The storyline is all over the place really, mixing in some police procedural stuff with De Niro-lookalike cop Elias Koteas, a cameo for Lucifer himself (Viggo Mortensen, raising his profile) and a superfluous appearance for CANDYMAN's Virginia Madsen.

Despite the film's sometimes slightly aimless feel, for the most part it works. The storyline is punctuated by moments of creepiness and graphic violence and for the most part it feels fresh and original. In fact, it did so well that sequels followed...

Thomas Daggett (Elias Koteas) loses his faith after receiving a vision. He quits the seminary and becomes an LAPD detective. An angel named Simon (Eric Stoltz) appears in Thomas' home and later in front of Mary, a native American child in Katherine (Virginia Madsen)'s class. Archangel Gabriel (Christopher Walken) recruits distressed human Jerry (Adam Goldberg) in his quest to win the war in heaven and destroy the talking monkeys. With the situation coming to a head, Mary and Thomas are offered help from Lucifer (Viggo Mortensen).

The first half is a little muddled. Expositions aren't necessarily the best parts of most movies but they are usually the necessary parts. This movie needs an exposition dump when Simon first meets Thomas. It can't be all flash visions and cute non-reveals. Simon needs to tell Thomas about the situation and Thomas needs to not believe. There is a weird kiss with a child. Some of it needs to be explained or else, it's too awkward and confusing. Once Gabriel dug up the military man, the plot gets a lot clearer and the movie works a lot better. Still, scenes keep cutting short. They end before their endings. Some go off screen. This could actually work as a very long pilot episode of a show. It does have great movie acting from Walken and Koteas. Filmmaker Gregory Widen is more of a writer than a director. That makes a lot of sense. The directing in this is problematic but there is good material in this muddle.