I admit that I have an affinity for crappy movies. I was one of the few who actually spent money to go see Uwe Boll’s epic computer game-turned-into-movie disaster ‘In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale’ and am a fan of those wondrously bad Sci-Fi Channel Original Movies. Another element of my strange hobby consists of watching fundamentalist (mostly right-wing Christian) films such as Left Behind, Bibleman, and others. Often armed with a low-end budget and reasoning akin to the Kirk Cameron/Ray Comfort ‘banana’ argument, one can derive a certain cynical hilarity from these films as well. For everyone else though, I have volunteered to watch these films so you don’t have to (or don’t want to waste the time doing so).
Aside from the obvious outlining of the plot and the various pitfalls of the movies, I will be assigning a ‘rating’ to the movie consisting of one to five popped collars, where one popped collar is mildly annoying and five popped collars is the epitome of douchebaggery.
Today’s review will be of The Omega Code 2: Megiddo. You can view/download the entire movie HERE free and completely legally.
Michael York stars (the guy from those old Three Musketeer films) as Stone Alexander, the Anti-Christ. Also of note is R. Lee Ermey (the drill sergeant from Full Metal Jacket), who plays the President of the United States. Megiddo is the only true right-wing Christian ‘war’ movie set during the end times; other films such as the Omega Code 1 and the Left Behind series were always more dramas with elements of conflict.
The first part of the film essentially follows the life of a young Stone Alexander, as he fails to kill his infant brother David Alexander as a youth, graduates at a top military academy, and later employs ruthlessness and a diabolical intellect to climb his way up the political ladder to eventually become the leader of the European Union. In his personal life, Stone eyes Gabriella Francini – the daughter of the man who runs the military academy – and threatens and reveals himself as the AntiChrist to her father to pressure him into accepting her as his wife.
Stone’s political stature increases even further as a worldwide food crisis looms; as other first-world governments fail to respond to the threat, his EU introduces revolutionary new food wafers, genetically engineered crops, and new desalinization technology to quickly mitigate these issues. Using the political capital gained from his management of the situation, Alexander proposes that there be a ‘global democracy’ consisting of ‘ten world regions’ and himself as the Chancellor.
Of course, all offers of global peace are frauds perpetrated by demons masquerading as world leaders, so many people were rightfully skeptical. Among those is the President of the United States and David Alexander, the Vice President of the United States. Both somehow intrinsically (when completely lacking evidence, trust your gut!) know that Stone Alexander is somehow evil and plotting to take over the world. Unfortunately for President Ermey, his drill sergeant-esque awesomeness and his complete willingness to go against Congress, the American Public, and his very own Secretary of State (all three of whom support the ‘global democracy’) was no match for the Anti-Christ and a subtle but very lethal dose of poison.
When his brother and now-president David Alexander continues to resist the formation of the new world order, Stone Alexander kills his own father and frames David for the murder. Stone then takes control over his father’s media empire in order to further propagandize the world population and sway it into accepting his proposal. Meanwhile, David is branded as a traitor and fugitive by his own country and by the world. But surely this goodly conservative president who is solidly against the sentiments of the American people and who issued numerous executive orders without Congressional oversight has done nothing wrong, right?
People begin to realize that Stone is not all who he appears though. When Mexico refuses to join the New World Order, Stone unleashes a drought upon the entire nation. China, too, resists and is hit by a locust swarm and forced to join. Elsewhere, a spike in the level of natural disasters not caused by Stone – a symbol of God’s wrath – fuels discontent among the people towards the new world government. But perhaps the most ridiculous part of the film happens when Stone takes a trip to Africa to shore up support for his flagging coalition. When the African crowd – which initially enthusiastically addresses Stone with stereotypical tribal hollering – reacts negatively to Stone’s completely reasonable demand that he be worshipped as a god, the good Anti-Christ rains lightning down from the sky to force the crowd into submission.
Stereotypical tribal yelling? A white guy resorting to ‘magic’ to get an uncouth mass of Africans to worship him as a god? Nope, not racist at all. Maybe this is a window of how the filmmakers view Africa though – as some sort of ‘Dark Continent’ full of heathens who need to be converted to the Goodly Religion. But I digress…
With all the ten world regions subjugated and the pro-Satan Secretary of State seemingly in control of the US Armed Forces, Stone Alexander orders an army from all of the ten regions to gather at Megiddo to prepare to battle God. Fortunately for his brother David, the US Military in this universe actually unflinchingly serves it’s Commander in Chief rather than the Constitution no matter what he has done. Naturally the US’s sources of cheap labor – Mexico and Godless Heathen Red Communist China (go figure…) – are also prepared to do God’s work and, along with the US Army, plan on turning against those pansy liberal Europeans gathered at Megiddo.
The forces of good initially gain the upper hand with the element of surprise. However, it turns out that in the near future every nation in the world will employ generic M1 Abrams tanks that snail along at 3 mph. It is no wonder then that on the verge of defeat, Stone Alexander reveals himself to be a bad CGI of a giant flying horned baboon… thing who imbues his troops with unholy strength to turn back the tide. Predictably leading the counter-charge are those godless former Communists – the Russians; never mind the fact that we have our own godless Communists the Chinese who for some reason fight on the side of God and are kind enough to supply us with lead-coated Cabbage Patch Kids dolls.
The flying demon baboon who I assume is supposed to represent the Anti-Christ then blocks out the sun purely for dramatic effect and engages in a one-on-one fight to the death with David… because that’s how all battles are supposed to be decided. With the Mexicans and Americans on the brink of defeat and David badly injured, it appears that the entire world would be doomed to an existence of worshipping some giant flying baboon… thing while holding their laughter back or risk facing his simian wrath. But fortunately for our heroes God decides to spontaneously appear, kill all the evil soldiers, and lock the Anti-Christ in a molten prison in the center of the earth – thus making all the elan, tactics, strategies, and bravado exhibited by both sides of the conflict completely irrelevant! The End!
Overall, the first part of the movie wasn’t that bad. We get a sense of what ends Stone Alexander is willing to go to get ‘his way’. And despite his being more ruthless and more ambitious than all his colleagues, we also can connect with those people around him who aren’t possessed by the Anti-Christ, especially his wife and his father. One thing I especially liked about this part of the movie was the subtleness that Michael York portrayed Stone at this juncture – unlike with the Left Behind series, York is a very experienced actor who does try to bring out the most in his lines.
The battle scenes during the second part of the movie were passable given the $10 million budget (which is actually higher than most fundie films). The inclusion of plenty of pyrotechnics, dozens of vehicles incorporated into each shot, and many extras gave the sense that one actually was watching a major battle – granted, not the battle for the end of the world and one without any tactics or overall strategy, but nonetheless an impressive feat given the typically low quality found in this genre of films.
However, given the latent racism against the Africans, the implication that liberal Europeans are going to ruin the world unless a right-wing law-breaking US president stops them, and that CGI ‘Anti-Christ’ that I still can’t get over, I give this movie a rating of:
2.5 Popped Collars