Along with the Gods series

(On TV, August 2020) While The Last 49 Days was written and shot at the same time as its prequel The Two Worlds to form the Along with the Gods diptych, neither film is equal in impact. All of the unanswered questions from the first film are addressed here, but despite being a second half that multiplies the large-scale special effects sequence, the impact is somehow less grandiose than the first film. While the protagonist of the tale remains the impossibly perfect deceased hero passing seven trials on his way to becoming a paragon of virtue, the narrative does shift further to the three guardians as they have a story and stakes of their own. While The Last 49 Days does keep some interest, it’s a sequel of diminishing returns: it loses some of the focus of the first film, and has a tendency to lose itself in historical or domestic sequences. It does remain fun enough, though: dinosaurs attacking our heroes is not necessarily something we could anticipate. More successful as a conclusion to the first film than by itself, The Last 49 Days is a downgrade, but not a failure.

(On TV, August 2020) All right, this is interesting. Flawed, but interesting. Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds begins as a modern-day firefighter dies and finds himself in the afterlife, escorted by three guardians who insist that he’s a paragon of virtue. Tested through a series of trials meant to examine his life, our protagonist openly questions whether he’s the promised paragon, and his guardians have a lot riding on whether he is. The film’s opening is quite good, with a bit of suspense, mystery and humour—plus special effects. A lot of special effects, from the opening to the end of the film. They’re sometimes rough, but the imagination is there. Narratively, The Two Worlds isn’t as successful: the schematic trial structure is broken up by a (less successful) narrative mystery, but there’s a risk that the film is overcomplicating things as it advances. The film’s concept is stronger than the mid-level moment-to-moment scripting: the protagonist is a wet noodle without much personality throughout the film, and there’s a good argument to be made that the lead characters aren’t the dead person going through the afterlife, but his three guardians—they seem better developed, have clear goals, and their interaction gives them more lines than the nonentity lead. The ending is deliberately inconclusive, as tortured family dynamics come to light and the film finds no clear conclusion—but that’s fine, since Along with the Gods is meant to be a two-parter with The Last 49 Days following up The Two Worlds. We’ll see in the next film if it all comes to a satisfying conclusion.