Sadly Over-hyped

Nice effects though.

There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Well, I enjoyed it. Somewhat a bit too long, but Billy Zane gives a well acted performance. The bad guy played by McGinley is very corny and goofy, quite unbelievable in his actions, yet somehow it fits the storyline. I caught this movie on a rainy afternoon and found its four hours most entertaining and suspenseful. Some of the plot is very far fetched. Examples are: The little girl brings a bird back to life and in the fashion of a Jesus Christ makes serious bloody wounds and cuts heal, but this is a great child actress. I like Billy Zane and always thought he was a fine actor. I recommend this movie. Not the best, but compelling, riveting and suspenseful. One other comment I have is that I could not stomach the cruelty of the blinding and shooting of the horse by the McGinley character. To me this was absolutely not necessary and totally repellent.

This movie is a great piece of sci-fi and fantasy movie making. Of course you can tell that it was a novel from the word go as it is a very "out there" story. However as long as you watch this movie with and open mind and ignore the plot holes and blatant impossibilities if of this movie it is an enjoyable movie.The casting is very good (Iespecially enjoyed the man from 'scrubs' as the bad guy however over the top his character was!),Billy Zane is surprisingly good as the central role in a performance that i have never seen from him. The story is interesting and compelling and its easy to see that it would make a very good page turner as you are always kept on the edge of your seat. However out there the story may be there are important ideas about God, Life, Family and Death all contained subtly within the story (as do all great novels). This gives the movie a whole new dimension that sets it apart from any one dimensional sci-fi movies that i have seen. its a movie that leaves you thinking afterwards but also is not eclipsed by this and so leaves the movie entertaining and not too strenuous for the watcher (or reader). There are also some very creepy moments in this movie but nothing too scary so don't be put off if you are easily scared because you shouldn't be too scared by this movie. So in all watch this movie it is enjoyable for the thinking movie fans of you out there, the die hard sci-fi fans and anyone who has a few hours to spare time(OK quite a lot of spare time this is a long movie as it was originally a mini series).

A made for TV miniseries - thank god it aired in one piece in my country- based on a typical Dean Koontz story. A typical Dean Koontz story consists most of the times of the following trademark ingredients:1.an evil villain that has access to all the nifty computer and info stuff, mostly a loner and a sociopath. 2. a secret organization that can only partly control the fore-mentioned bad guy but delivers him ( mostly its a him) resources. 3. a loner that is halfway out of the system is also very witty on the same grounds the bad guy is 4. someone in distress. 5. a little dash of the supernatural or some ET activity.Stir this up and serve chilled. In other words in my opinion most of the Koontz books are exactly the same with a few exceptions. A done by the numbers story that after reading more books becomes predictable and boring.Most of the Koontz movies I saw - not that many- suffer of course all the more from the above and so does this movie. Billy Zane is not a very gifted actor and he stumbles through the plot with mild commitment and I never felt the grief portrayed enough that a man who has lost his wife and child must feel. The muddled plot that is predictable for everyone who has read at least one fiction book in his life goes and goes and the viewer might take the opportunity to nod off so once in a while...ButThere is Mr McGinley, I liked him in on deadly ground and an ever further over the top character is brought to the screen here. He has all the great lines and he breathes more life in the material he has been given than one could expect. Lucky for the viewer he has a nice portion of screen time and it might be hard not to cheer for the bad guy in this case. He portraits a better bad guy than Mr Koontz can create in his books. He is by far the best actor in this series and from the looks of it the only one who is enjoying himself.The 7 I gave is for his performance.

The story of this film is ok and should guarantee a great film but it isn't. The film starts ok but basically there isn't enough material to fill the approx. 180 minutes. This results in scenes that go on and on and every bit of detailed is chewed ready for the viewer like they don't have any imagination themselves. Somewhere after 100 minutes of viewing time it's hard to keep fascinated by the film.