"The Covenant" Talkback (Spoilers)

[Tobias]

"Harry Potter can kiss my AHHH!" - Reid Garwin

Release Date: September 8, 2006
Studio: Screen Gems Entertainment
Director: Renny Harlin
Starring: Steven Strait, Taylor Kitsch, Toby Hemmingway, Sebastian Strait

Plot Outline: Four young men who belong to a supernatural legacy are charged with stopping the evil force they released into the world years earlier. Another great force they must contend with is the jealousy and suspicion that threatens to tear them apart.

Visit the Official Movie Site :here


You know, watching 'The Covenant' was like buying a big bag of (choose your favorite kind) of potato chips, getting it home, opening it, and realizing that the bag's half empty. I got the same kind of feeling watching this film.

The movie is about four best friends: Caleb (Steven Strait), the leader of the group; Reid (Toby Hemingway), the freelance Jerk of the gang; Pogue (Taylor Kitsch) the rebel with the heart of gold; and some fourth guy who really isn't important to the story so I'll refer to him from here on out that 'Guy who stands around and does nothing'.

The four friends are known as The Sons of Iswich, descendants of four of five families hunted down and killed during the Salem Witch trials. For generations, the bloodline continues in the eldest son, developing minor powers at 13, then getting the full buffet on the 18th birthday. Of course, these powers come with a cost, but we'll get to that later.

After a slightly humorous opening sequence, which sets up the movie to be a fun rollercoaster ride, we QUICKLY fall into boredom for the next hour or so, so we can get all the plotpoints and characters.
The four musketeers meet up with Chace (Sebastian Strait) at a rave, who is unknown to them, the descendant of the long thought dead 5th family, who becomes hellbent on getting Caleb to will over his powers on his 18th birthday when he 'ascends'.

There's a curse on there powers, you see: The more you use them when you ascend, the more rapidly you age. Chace believes that the more power you have, the more you can prevent the aging process. So he goes about torturing Pogue's and Caleb's girlfriends, killing a random student and sending him Pogue's and Caleb's way in the form of a 'Darkling' (which is never really fully explained WHY Chace does this instead of merely just killing the guy, all the Darkling does is point and vanish), and threatening everyone who moves to get what he wants. Since none of the four boys have ascended, they don't have the powers to stop him... yet.

I won't give away how Caleb fights back because that would require me writing more of this review than is neccesary.

The movie has a good premise, but that's all it has going for it. The problem is that the film just isn't that fun to watch. There's four main good guys to root for, but only Caleb (and to a minor extent Pogue and Reid) get any real time to do anything. The fourth member of their crew just stands around, holding Reid back when he gets too angered.

The movie is *kind of* like The Craft, only that movie was much better made and had an ending you can appreciate. 'The Covenant' just... ends. There's some good special effects, and plenty of shots of Pogue's and Caleb's girlfriends in their underwear, but other than that, there's nothing in this movie worth seeing.

EDIT: Forgot to add the poll. Could a mod help me out? Thanks.

[Oh look I'm...]

For some reason, I expected this movie to be considerably darker than it was. I heard it was Rated R, then later heard it was PG13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some disturbing images, sexual content, partial nudity and language. To my (limited) knowledge, there was no sexual content. The beginning was, like, the most rique it got out of the whole movie (...if you call burning cars at night and running from the cops "risque").

I give it a 3 out of 5. A nice run, but it didn't touch my soul or anything. See it once, then move on.

[Steven C]

For some reason, I expected this movie to be considerably darker than it was. I heard it was Rated R, then later heard it was PG13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some disturbing images, sexual content, partial nudity and language. To my (limited) knowledge, there was no sexual content. The beginning was, like, the most rique it got out of the whole movie (...if you call burning cars at night and running from the cops "risque").

I give it a 3 out of 5. A nice run, but it didn't touch my soul or anything. See it once, then move on.

Wow are u bringing back every movie thread??

[Lord Dalek]

Let us not speak of this movie or Rennie Harlin in general ever again.

[purplehairedwonder]

Let us not speak of this movie or Rennie Harlin in general ever again.

I actually enjoyed it for the most part... it was just too short. It failed for it's lack of backstory. Had it had another half an hour to delve deeper into the background, I think it would have been a lot more fun.

Then again, I also saw it in the free theater, so I lost nothing seeing it. The lead was pretty cute, too.

[Dirty Dawg]

I give the movie a B.I didn't think I'd like it but after I watched it,it wasn't so bad

[SirLemming]

Wow are u bringing back every movie thread??

Looks to me like he's bringing back every movie talkback that we've done about a movie that's on Rotten Tomatoes's "100 worst-rated movies" list... Not sure why.

Must have to do with Year Zero.