Storm of the Century

This series is really, really long.  The run time is well over 4 hours.  Now, for a TV miniseries, that isn't too bad as they tend to be 2 parts.  I was actually going to review each half, but the DVD decided to divide the movie in a very strange way.  It was a 2 sided disc, so you would assume that part 1 would be on the first side and the second on the reverse.  On the contrary, the movie just kept running.  I cant recall, where exactly the "To be continued..." would've hit, but I'm pretty sure we were well past it by the time it told us to flip the disc.  Even stranger was the fact that the movie stopped mid-conversation.  It was almost mid-sentence.  One second people were talking and the next, bam it tells us to flip the disc.

The story concerns Little Tall Island, a small island town off the coast of Maine (which they constantly refer to as "The Island", having recently torn through the first five seasons of Lost, I found that highly amusing).  The town is preparing for a massive blizzard that is about to strike.  Things go from bad to worse when a strange man named Andre Linoge arrives in town. 

I stumbled upon an amusing quote that quasi-jokingly sums up the work of Stephen King's work into one sentence.  It was a nice day...and then evil came!!   That more or less sums up this film, but it's still pretty decent.  

The first half really drags.  Yes, it sets everything up, and there isn't a lot of needless exposition, but it's just there.  Even the parts that do try to be creepy aren't.  Namely, Linoge singing I'm a little teapot before he beats an old woman to death with his cool cane (well at least it was cool until you find out that it's Saba's evil cousin).   Even when the children all chant the song in unison later, it had no effect on me.  There are some children's songs that can be creepy when utilized correctly, but this ain't one of em.  

The second half is much improved.  It actually builds up tension and suspense as Linoge makes his demands known and the town has to try and cope with this horrifying decision.  On the one hand, the movie's been out long enough that I shouldn't have to worry about spoilers, but on the off chance someone hasn't seen it, I'll be vague.  I'll just say it should've been Donny (what? he's a punk.)  The ending is a bit predictable, my roommate even said that he saw it coming from a mile away, but it still works pretty well.

The script is OK for the most part.  There are a few cornball lines here and there, but nothing too bad.  Well, the one big thing I would've changed was the scene with the blocks.  Mike Anderson, the protagonist played by Tim "Superman" Daly, is in a room and finds some building blocks with letters on them.  Coincidentally, all the letters in Linoge's name are there laid out in front of them.  In horror, he rearranges them to spell Legion.  Why blocks? Couldn't the anagram have just hit him in a bit of fridge logic and then when he explains it to his friends he could change it around with a pen and a piece of paper.  With the blocks it just came off as goofy.

You'll notice something very familiar about Linoge.  To me, at least, he seemed very similar to one Randall Flagg.  Heck, it's even said that he is the demon, Legion, which Flagg was also said to be.  Now, this doesn't mean that they're the same entity per se since Legion is many, but they are at the very least similar entities.  Heck, at the end, Linoge even dons a black cloak, making him look very similar to Walter O'Dim.

Linoge is played by Colm Feore, who does a decent enough job.  I would've loved to see someone like Michael Emerson (the guy who played Hinks on The Practice and Ben Linus on Lost) or if they had the budget for it, Kevin Spacey take the role.  They would've owned it.

As with most movies, it's interesting to put yourself into their situation and imagine how you would handle it. Mike says that they can't give in and that if they stand united they could fight him.  I'm not so sure it's a fight you can win.  I joked that since they had a priest, they could whip up a batch of holy water, bless a golf club with it and then whack Linoge with it, but given his mental and telekinetic powers, I don't think you'd be able to get close enough to do even that.  With his ability to control people, he could just as easily have turned them all against each other.  As if that didn't make him formidable enough, you don't really see a ceiling on what he's capable of.    

Yes, it sucks, and they were caught between a rock and a hard place, but as bad as the choice was, I kinda think they made the right one.  It's implied that the decision haunted them, but what was the alternative?  Would everyone dying have been the better choice?  The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.  

Maybe if the town weren't crippled by the storm, they could gather some crosses and load up some squirt guns with holy water to mount a proper defense, but as it was, they didn't really have much of a choice.

The series all in all is OK, although if you're going to watch it, I would find out when it airs and DVR it so you can watch each part separately.  As the DVD forces you to watch it in one sitting, it's a bit much.