Homage to Fromage: Doomsday Prophesy
I’m really late with this one and for that, I apologize. However, in my defense it took me three sittings to get through this one. Not that it was bad. Well….I mean, it was bad, but it wasn’t baaaaaaad bad. I’ve said the same thing about all of the other films featured in the Homage to Fromage column. You expect these movies to reek, and you have to take them for what the are. I can appreciate the cheese. With that being said, let me tell you about the latest….Doomsday Prophesy.
This movie is about what the title suggests. Shit is going down, and the planet is in dire straights. The movie starts at the site of a, I guess we’ll call it a geographical disaster/mystery? That’s the best way I can describe it. Anyhoo…it seems, that quite suddenly one of the seas dried up. It was either the Dead Sea or the Red Sea or maybe it was a really big lake. To be honest I don’t quite remember. Regardless, the earth pretty much just opened up and all of the water drained out. And that was just the beginning.
In New York, Eric Fox (A.J. Buckley), an editor for a publishing house, watches the news reports of the disasters happening around the world when he’s given his next assignment. A famous author and current day Nostradamus has requested him specifically to travel to the boon-docks (actually I think it was Colorado. Or maybe Utah? Another fact that didn’t stick) to pick up his latest manuscript. Apparently everything this guy has written, has come true. Eric’s boss sees this as a big payday but Eric isn’t impressed, but he goes anyway. Meanwhile, archeologist (I think) Brook Kelvin (Jewel Staite) is working at a site when she gets the call that summons her to the author’s cabin as well. Mind you, she’s never met him but, you got it….goes anyway.
Eric arrives at the cabin only to find the elderly man dead in his chair with a strange-looking rod sitting in front of him. Eric, of course, picks it up and is floored (literally) by sudden visions of future events and catastrophes. Seems the rod is the source of the old man’s predictions. Part of Eric’s vision was seeing Brook walk in, which she does shortly after he regains him composure. She gets a little freaked out, understandably, by the fact that Eric, who she doesn’t know, is on the floor holding this scary looking rod thingy, and the fact that the old man is dead. Of course she thinks that Eric killed him. Thank goodness Eric explained it all to her, and that she believed him! Well, the old man had foreseen his death and he had the forethought (tee-hee) to leave a note, and a video message. Both explain to him that A) there really is no manuscript. It was a lie told to get Eric to come to him and B) Eric needs to take the rod because it’s his birthright (huh??).
So at this point, Eric and Brook are on the run because, of course, the military wants to get their mitts on that rod. I’m really trying to refrain from some bad jokes here. But I digress. As Eric and Brook follow the old man’s instructions, disaster is happening everywhere else. This is all caused by a galaxy wide alignment. Not to mention this big old black hole type thing that ate Jupiter….and threatens to eat Earth too! I’m no astronomer, but from what I understand, there’s a delicate balance going on out there. If Jupiter gets eaten, wouldn’t that affect the rest of the galaxy? No? I’m just asking.
So to make a long story short……Eric and Brook on the run. Government bad guys chasing. World is falling apart at the seams. Eric sees total destruction when he touches the rod. Native American elder steps in to explain and help. Bad government guy gets whacked, good government agent decides to help. Scientist computer guy comes along and explains the alignment. And they find out that statues similar to those found on Easter Island are buried in the forest, and their positions mimic one of the constellations. The rod needs to go into the head of one of the statues and that will save the Earth and ward off the hungry, planet-eating black hole.
With about two minutes to spare (because it’s all going down at midnight) evil General shows up wanting the rod. He seems to think that this event or whatever, is a survival-of-the-fittest challenge and that he’ll survive and be left to rule the world. He also tells Eric that he’s the son of the psuedo-Nostrodamus old guy. Wait….what? Yup, that was my thought too. Keep in mind that this point is never explained, it was just thrown in there. Fisticuffs ensue, bad General gets what’s coming to him (i.e. Death) and Eric jams the rod into the statue (God, that sounds really bad…but it’s what happened, I swear it) and saves the Earth and humanity! YAAAAY ERIC!
Doomsday Prophecy wasn’t great, but it wasn’t the worst I’ve seen either. Sure the acting was less than desirable and the action was as thin as parchment paper but seriously, it was better than Age of the Dragons by a three-quarters of a mile. Not a full mile, but close. I won’t lie, the CGI was pretty bad. I read some reader reviews on the IMDb page for this movie and all I could do was laugh. Did people really expect this film to have visuals like 2012? It’s a TV movie people! Take it for what it is and you may not be disappointed.
I think Ice Road Terror is still at the top of my list so far, but it could be replaced. This weekend SyFy is showing Killer Mountain! With a tag line like “Some mountains are forbidden for a reason” how could you go wrong. Plus, Aaron Douglas from Battlestar Galactica is in it. Sold!
You can check out the trailer for Doomsday Prophecy to see what you missed as well as the trailer for Killer Mountain to whet your appetite.
Doomsday Prophecy
Killer Mountain
Tags: A.J. Buckley, Alan Dale, Doomsday Prophecy, Jewel Staite, SyFy
