Review: Angels Fallen: Warriors of Peace (2024)

An increasing number of faith-based films have come onto the scene over the past ten years. While they started out being debate films filled with exposition of opposing views and retelling of biblical stories, they have since branched out into the horror and action genres. One recent film fits into the later category; Angels Fallen: Warriors of Peace from Director Ali Zamani which is a follow up to Angels Fallen. Gabriel, a soldier who was wounded in combat, is called by a higher power to help save the world from being overrun by an army of demons led by the archangel Michael. Gabriel assembles his old team for the mission but realizes they cannot do it alone. They soon join up with a group of warriors who are experienced in demonic warfare. It will take everyone’s strength and faith to save the world.

Angels Fallen: Warriors of Peace is a melodramatic and cheesy action film with a campy spirit that is rooted in faith. It is a mixed bag of good and bad. I enjoyed the world-building in the story, from the rules the Warriors of Peace follow to the existence of demons to the production design. All of it was a fun world to experience. I particularly enjoyed the “Q” scene where our heroes are called to an armory full of demon fighting weapons which is run by Deborah, well played by Denise Richards. Richards looked like she was having fun and even got a chance to spill some demonic blood. I also enjoyed Balthazar, played by Cuba Gooding Jr., taking over the role played by Michael Madsen in the previous film. He gets to flex his muscles a bit in a flashback scene fighting demons on a really cool stone bridge. The action scenes are well choreographed and involved. Both the fight scenes in the strip club and a motorcycle chase had decent stunts and were well directed. Even the fight with the CGI demons was not half bad. Then there was the unexpected blood and nudity that made it a bit edgier than many other films of this type.

All of these positive elements were not enough to cover up the roughest aspect of Angels Fallen: Warriors of Peace: the screenplay. It really could have used more work. The dialog was uninspired and very on the nose. The majority of the characters were one note with very little distinguishing one from the other. This impacted the performances of the cast which ranged from decent to ok.  Josh Burdett plays Gabriel with the weight needed for the character. You can feel his struggle with his faith, beliefs, and see him being a leader to his squad. Michael is played by Michael Teh and his performance is the best, possibly because he has some of the better dialog. Teh plays the heavy with the right balance of confidence and darkness. The rest of the cast do well enough with the screen time they have, but they all could have used better written characters and dialog. The CGI looked far better than many indie films with the same budget but when it was bad, it was very noticeable. The music could have also been better, but when working on smaller budgets score usually takes a back seat.

Angels Fallen: Warriors of Peace is one of the better faith-based films to come out in recent years. It’s mature edge helps make it more accessible to adults and it never gets too saccharine. The preachiness is still there but it at least wears its beliefs on its sleeve and isn’t trying to convert its audience. The production value is high, and it had a bit of a Buffy The Vampire Slayer vibe to it. Overall I was more entertained than I thought I would be. I think if you enjoy this genre of film, you should seek it out.