Dark Angel: The Ascent

Were you a big fan of the soap opera Dark Shadows? If so, here is your movie.

For those of you outside the loop, Dark Shadows was about soap opera characters who pretty much acted like other soap opera characters, except that they were werewolves and vampires and emissaries of The Dark Prince.

Dark Angel features a vengeful and violent demoness from hell who escapes to earth and falls in love with a human doctor who melts her heart with chocolaty goodness. Of course, she's still a beast from hell, but she learns the meaning of love. Or something. It's not my kind of movie, all gothic and romantic and melodramatic. A strange admixture of longing gazes, syrupy music, and bloody violence.

The Arrow, a top genre site reviewer, praised the film as a strange combination of romance and violence, so I guess you genre fans might like it. He said, "Lots of violence. People hacked to pieces, spine ripped out, hearts ripped out of chests and fed to dog…It’s weird to see a movie with so many beautiful tender moments filled with so much graphic violence... "

NUDITY REPORT

Angela Featherstone: clear looks at breasts and buns as she stands silently, then runs from the camera.

The Critics Vote ...

Here's The Arrow's review

The People Vote ...

IMDB summary. IMDb voters score it 6.1/10

The meaning of the IMDb score: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence equivalent to about three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, comparable to approximately two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, equivalent to about a two star rating from the critics, or a C- from our system. Films rated below five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film - this score is roughly equivalent to one and a half stars from the critics or a D on our scale. (Possibly even less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. (C+ means it has no crossover appeal, but will be considered excellent by genre fans, while C- indicates that it we found it to be a poor movie although genre addicts find it watchable). D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well. Any film rated C- or better is recommended for fans of that type of film. Any film rated B- or better is recommended for just about anyone. We don't score films below C- that often, because we like movies and we think that most of them have at least a solid niche audience. Now that you know that, you should have serious reservations about any movie below C-.

Based on this description, this is a C. Based on the IMDb score, genre fans think it is pretty cool. Others beware. Angela Featherstone, however, is gorgeous.