Angels Fallen: Warriors of Peace (2024) Film Review – Zamani’s Next Installment in the Angels Fallen Universe

Posted on by Kate DeJonge

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“Haunted by the war in Iraq, a depressed and faithless Gabriel is approached by the mysterious Balthazar, who recruits Gabriel to stop the evil Archangel Michael from raising an army of the dead to take over the world. With the help of his old platoon, Gabriel sets off to find the Warriors of Peace, their only hope in defeating Michael and his army.”

*SPOILER ALERT!*

Angels Fallen: Warriors of Peace (2024) is an action-packed thriller with elements of horror that lean heavily on the current state of the world, calling into focus both humanity’s exhaustion with war and our wavering reliance on religion. The main character Gabriel (Josh Burdett) is a retired US Army Sergeant with PTSD and a lapse in his Catholicism. He, and the other members of his platoon, have all been let down by Veterans Affairs, and are struggling to cope with their lives ten years after their return from Iraq. Gabriel has been “existing” rather than living, moving quietly back and forth between his home and his job as an auto mechanic. After waking from a nightmare full of military flashbacks, Gabriel finds a stranger sitting in his kitchen drinking a glass of wine. The stranger (Cuba Gooding Jr.) reveals himself to be the Angel Balthazar and says that Gabriel has been chosen to lead a battle against Archangel Michael and his army of the undead.

Angels Fallen
Image courtesy of Uncork’d Entertainment

The fact that Balthazar is a benevolent messenger from God in this film and that Michael is hell-bent on razing the earth is enough to let viewers know that they are not sitting down to watch a biblically accurate movie. While the opening scenes (Gabriel’s nightmare flashback to his time in Iraq) were well done, most of the dialogue thereafter feels unnatural and the story has…holes. The film is flawed from the beginning, but it sure is fun to watch! Setting aside any expectations you have regarding the writing or dialogue will go a long way toward enjoying the 1-hour 40-minute runtime. With that said–

Angels Fallen: Warriors of Peace takes great advantage of the breathtaking scenery of Georgia, and uses CGI to blend footage shot on location with those filmed on set in LA. To my eye, it was difficult to tell which scenes were truly filmed in the mountains and which were manipulated on a computer. Panoramic drone footage in these locations makes the film feel like it had a much larger budget than it actually did. Scenes in the National Parliamentary Library of Georgia give us a beautiful view of the country’s historical architecture and interior design, and those filmed at the Cave Town (Vardzia) are just fascinating. The cinematography and eye for colour more than make up for the stilted script, and so do the high-quality action scenes.

Angels Fallen
Image property of Voices From the Balcony

There are plenty of high-level combat scenes in the film, from the war in Iraq to a Nazi fight club in the US, to Michael (Michael Teh)’s Neo-esque speed of light martial arts. The team even scored professional UFC fighter and Olympic wrestler Randy Couture to play “Marcus”, a ruffian who Michael recruits to his team of baddies. The most epic fight scenes come into play when the demons are introduced. For those battles, Gabriel and his platoon need weapons that only Deborah (Denise Richards) can supply. She’s older, and she’s had some work done, but she’s still recognizable as the Denise Richards most viewers will be watching this film to see. Deborah is the only character with a sense of humour in the story, and she delivers her lines with the same gutsy smirk we all know and love. She doesn’t get a lot of screen time (that probably would have cost the producers a lot more!), but viewers will be happy with what they get. 

As the film’s plot is “good versus evil”, the teams feel a little lop-sided. Gabriel has a handful of human soldiers at his disposal, while Michael has some of the biggest beastly demons ever seen in an indie film. Some creatures are scarier than others, and the rendering is hit-and-miss, but overall the effects and animation crew did a pretty good job delivering a wide variety of foes for Gabriel and his soldiers to defeat. The depiction of Lucifer is one of the most creative I’ve ever seen, low or high budget! It’s a good thing the humans have Deborah’s weapons, though, or they would have been toast fighting those nearly unstoppable monsters from unleashing hell on Earth. 

Fallen Angels
Image courtesy of Uncork’d Entertainment

Some moments are stolen from other films (I’m looking at you, Michael Teh, dodging bullets ala Matrix), but considering this is a plot line that has been done and done again, Angels Fallen: Warriors of Peace is a unique story idea. Sure it’s angels versus demons, but the age-old religious battle for humanity takes on a new tone with the addition of ex-military characters as the defenders of the light. These are real men and women who have been to hell and back in the name of service to their country. Now, after being continually let down by their own government, they’re asked to return to the battlefield to defend all of humankind, for a God they no longer believe in. Does this small, ragtag group have what it takes to keep our planet safe from Michael and his demons? Of course, they do. The demons never win in these movies. You’ll know how the story is going to end almost from the beginning, but you’ll watch the entire thing because it’s entertaining, the demons are scary, and the scenery is dazzling. 

Angels Fallen: Warriors of Peace, written and directed by Ali Zamani (with co-writers Amanda Barton and Chris Kato), is being touted as the “next installment” after Angels Fallen (2020). Could there be a third movie in this franchise coming soon? Follow us here at the Grimoire of Horror to find out!

Angels Fallen: Warriors of Peace (2024) is available on Prime Video here.

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