1st watched 8/12/2001 - 5 out of 10(Dir-John Terlesky): Interesting yet unfulfilling strange action/sci fi yarn with good performance by Mario Van Peebles. This was an enjoyable movie until the tel-al demon seemed invincible and although I won't give away the ending, it really took the movie from "thumbs up" to "thumbs down" status for me. I was routing for this picture because of the variety of bad-movies that Van Peebles has been involved with, but despite Van Peebles well-done performance the movie didn't quite make it.

I just saw this on the WB, and I can see why the previous comments weren&#39;t favorable. &quot;Guardian&quot; (2000) is put together like any of a number of books I&#39;ve read over the years; important information is handed out at the beginning, then the story/action distracts and pulls the viewer or reader into another scenario, then the two are blended and brought to an end that refers back to the beginning info. I think the reason the end isn&#39;t fulfilling to some is that they aren&#39;t catching the hint given part way through the movie: &quot;She&#39;ll take good care of him&quot;. And some perfectly good innocents get zapped along the way, which is a bummer. But that&#39;s all I&#39;ll say about that stuff.<br/><br/>As for comparing &quot;Guardian&quot; to &quot;Fallen&quot;, well, I think the movies have only one element in common, and I disliked &quot;Fallen&quot; so much it sits on my shelf collecting dust.<br/><br/>Relatively formulaic, &quot;Guardian&quot; (2000) starts with an archaeologist digging up something he shouldn&#39;t, then the world as we know it is in danger unless a very human &quot;chosen one&quot; succeeds in saving the day. Mix that up with some modern cops-against-drugs scenes, a mysterious new drug, a couple protectors of a god&#39;s prophet-to-be, some supernatural goings on, and you have yourself a pretty good movie with several main characters portrayed by people you&#39;ll recognize even if you don&#39;t know their names. On the down side, if you don&#39;t read a lot, or if you read only non-fiction, you might not be able to follow the story.<br/><br/>I thought the effects were great in that nothing was *obviously* computer-assisted, and the movie contained a healthy mix of stunts and other effects opportunities for variety. I didn&#39;t get bored at all. By the way, the &quot;Matrix&quot; reference made by another user is half correct; the woman&#39;s coat makes me think of &quot;The Matrix&quot; but the woman&#39;s stunts (IMO) are better compared to Alice&#39;s of &quot;Resident Evil&quot; fame, and very well done at that.<br/><br/>I can recommend &quot;Guardian&quot; (2000) to anyone who might like the mix of detective story with supernatural and hero elements. And I&#39;d like to mention that I didn&#39;t see anything I would call Sci-Fi; I&#39;d label this Action/Supernatural/Thriller, or just a Supernatural Thriller.

The plot really wasn&#39;t even much of one and I thought it meandered all over the place like a drunk leaving a bar. In the end, I felt that the director (if he can really call himself one) left far too many loose threads than should be allowed.<br/><br/>The premise of the movie didn&#39;t make much sense, either. The way it started off was pretty lame. Following &#39;Telal&#39; from his &#39;escape,&#39; if you can call it that, made no sense. Having Selena conveniently explain stuff didn&#39;t make it any easier to swallow, either. The superstitious mumbo jumbo didn&#39;t make the movie any more interesting, it just provided more of a convenient vehicle to drag it out.<br/><br/>Overall, a really bad movie. I think it lowered my IQ several points! I wouldn&#39;t recommend it to anybody.<br/><br/>May Telal be a curse upon this horrid movie!