Whether due to circumstances or my own mindset, I have lately been in the mood for the kind of entertainment that would have clogged up the cheaper rental sections of your local video store decades ago. Dark Angel: The Ascent may have a title that makes you think it is a sequel or a TV spin-off, but it actually appears to be neither of those things. It’s just a supernatural adventure with some romance mixed in, and does enough to entertain those who don’t mind their silly entertainment struggling to rise above some very low production values.
Angela Featherstone plays Veronica, a young demoness who wants nothing more than to mingle with us humans. She is the dark angel of the title, and coming here to our Earthly plane is the ascent. When here, Veronica meets Dr. Max Bariss (Daniel Markel). The two start to form an immediate connection, but things may be complicated by Veronica dealing out some deadly justice to wrong-doers as she spots the bad souls destined to head to the lower realms. There’s also a corrupt and nasty mayor (Milton James) to be dealt with.
Written by Matthew Bright, who would go on to much more interesting fare when writing and directing his own features, this is slight and silly stuff, but does enough to keep people watching until the very end. I am not sure who exactly it’s aimed at (the occasional bits of bloodshed are quite tame, the romance feels ill-fitting), but it gains goodwill by constantly trying to do the best it can with fairly limited resources. Director Linda Hassani doesn’t have a huge filmography. She does well here though, presenting the main character in all her glory without relying on the usual/expected gratuitous nudity and innocence normally seen in such tales of female spirits who are newcomers to our world.
Featherstone is fine in the lead role. I have apparently seen her in some other movies, even if I cannot remember her in them, and she seems to be having fun here. Markel is far less interesting, which doesn’t really matter when he is basking in the glow of Featherstone’s presence. James is enjoyable enough in his few scenes, although his character should have been more of a giant spider looming over the web of crime and debauchery, and the rest of the cast is stuffed with cops, villains, and victims all fairly indistinguishable from one another. The only others who stand out are Nicholas Worth and Charlotte Stewart, playing parents with two very different approaches to the curiosity and strange morality of their demoness daughter.
I expected to watch this and then struggle to remember it as soon as the end credits rolled. Surprisingly, I had such a good time with it that I started to wish it had started a franchise I could start wading through. And yet, slightly paradoxically, I also appreciate it more for the fact that it’s a “one and done”, which is a real rarity from Full Moon Entertainment, the production studios overseen by Charles Band.
6/10
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