In Heaven's War (also known as Beyond The Darkness) there are a lot of fantastic, wondrous, incredible happenings. Angels spring out of the air to snatch people into an unearthly realm. Demons lurk everywhere, taking the shape of character's parents to tempt them with false versions of Christianity. The angels and the demons battle each other with flaming swords and black smoky hammers of Thor. Those are the fantastic things. The incredible is what our hero, surprisingly youthful senator Jonah Thomas, is doing that imperils his soul. Although he is an elected representative in the highest legislative body in the land, his wife expects him to take off in the middle of a work day to attend his daughter's tennis match.
Senator Jonah (Jason Gerhardt) finds himself alive but comatose after what appears to be a terrorist bombing. In the living world he is surrounded by FBI agents whose mission is to keep him alive. In the spirit world he is guided by the angel Gabriel (Danny Boaz) no less. Meanwhile, back in the hospital where mama is dying of cancer (a disease that concerns us many different ways in the plot) the senator's wife and child pray to the almighty for his safety.
The story kept my attention, despite being predictable. The senator hangs on the precipice of either death or damnation or both multiple times. Will the angels save him from his skeptical mind? Along the way we run into a healthy supply of Christian movie tropes: the prophetic dream, the atheist talked out of it, the conspicuous American flag, vaccinations as an evil plot, and lots of scenes at deathbeds. Most notably, the senator engages Gabriel in the standard Q&A about why there is suffering and evil in the world. If he only had answers, he would surely believe. This despite having been whisked into a bright golden landscape, made able to walk on water, and witnessing dozens of heavenly and hellish foot soldiers engaging in savage hand to hand combat on his personal behalf. Me, I would have renounced all skepticism within seconds of seeing the shining yellow sea and the falling comets turning into warriors.
The movie obviously had a budget, and the money appears on the screen. But when all the video game level special effects are done, it is the message which matters. It is a disturbing message. Gabriel at one point shows the senator some colleagues who did not survive the terrorist blast; they are falling into the fiery pits of hell. If I was the senator I would have one question for Gabriel: why were there no angels fighting for their salvation? Why didn't they get the second, third, and fourth chance he was being given?
Senator Jonah (Jason Gerhardt) finds himself alive but comatose after what appears to be a terrorist bombing. In the living world he is surrounded by FBI agents whose mission is to keep him alive. In the spirit world he is guided by the angel Gabriel (Danny Boaz) no less. Meanwhile, back in the hospital where mama is dying of cancer (a disease that concerns us many different ways in the plot) the senator's wife and child pray to the almighty for his safety.
The story kept my attention, despite being predictable. The senator hangs on the precipice of either death or damnation or both multiple times. Will the angels save him from his skeptical mind? Along the way we run into a healthy supply of Christian movie tropes: the prophetic dream, the atheist talked out of it, the conspicuous American flag, vaccinations as an evil plot, and lots of scenes at deathbeds. Most notably, the senator engages Gabriel in the standard Q&A about why there is suffering and evil in the world. If he only had answers, he would surely believe. This despite having been whisked into a bright golden landscape, made able to walk on water, and witnessing dozens of heavenly and hellish foot soldiers engaging in savage hand to hand combat on his personal behalf. Me, I would have renounced all skepticism within seconds of seeing the shining yellow sea and the falling comets turning into warriors.
The movie obviously had a budget, and the money appears on the screen. But when all the video game level special effects are done, it is the message which matters. It is a disturbing message. Gabriel at one point shows the senator some colleagues who did not survive the terrorist blast; they are falling into the fiery pits of hell. If I was the senator I would have one question for Gabriel: why were there no angels fighting for their salvation? Why didn't they get the second, third, and fourth chance he was being given?
