A child that will steer humankind down the road to hellfire has been born, and as his evil flourishes in a world full of hate, the ominous Biblical prophecies slowly begin falling into place in director John Moore's remake of Richard Donner's 1976 horror classic. Robert (Liev Schreiber) and Katherine Thorn (Julia Stiles) were as loving parents as any young boy could ask for, but as fate would have it, their new son Damien is far from the typical child. Now, as the mysterious boy's growth begins
to share frightening parallels with the Biblical passages detailing the rise of the Antichrist, and the lives of all who seek to reveal his true nature are cut gruesomely short, Robert and Katherine are forced to face the horrifying prospect that their child has been sent from Satan to hasten the fall of modern civilization, and that there is little they can do to curb his prophesied path of ultimate destruction. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
If the movie didn't take itself so seriously, it could have been a great popcorn muncher. As is, it'll still work fine for those willing to forgive its trespasses.
While not a shot-for-shot copy of Richard Donner's far superior 1976 original "Omen," David Seltzer --the screenwriter of both films%u2014barely updates his original script for this gratuitous remake.
... it's as if someone took a corpse, embalmed it to preserve the external appearance, slapped on a layer of fresh makeup, and then stuffed it full of animatronics to make it move and speak.
If you thought Van Sant's "Psycho" reshoot was weird, check this out. It's a community theater version of that old classic "The Omen", filled with all your favorite scenes.
will no doubt divide viewers into those who agree that it is high time that the original received so slick a makeover, and those who wonder whether there is much real point to a retooling of such devilish fidelity to its source.
As far as the movie goes, The Omen is pretty awful. The gimmick date has past and we're all still here. On the DVD production side, the extras are decent but probably not enough to make the complete package more than a renter.
I've not seen the original to be honest, so I can't compare them. I have to say though this was quite slow moving, more creepy than scary. The original has quite a reputation, which might be a little dated now. This just didn't deliver any scares, jumps or action for me, shame as it has a very good cast!
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