Tyler: Alright, well, I'm not sure where to start with The Rite ...
Jackie: How about we start with the best part, Anthony Hopkins who plays Father Lucas Trevant.
Tyler: Alright, I can agree with that. Hopkins' performance was really the best part. He is the only reason that I wanted to see this movie. I was worried that it would be too much like Hannibal Lecter but he did a good job of keeping that same creepy vibe and yet not being Hannibal Lecter. The writing's a different story.
Jackie: Yeah, seriously. I think my favorite line was when possessed Anthony Hopkins said "Wow, awesome, cool, whatever dude!" I know it was kind of an intense scene but I couldn't help laughing.
Tyler: Oh yeah. Ok, so some of the lines were kind of cheesy, and it was a novel thing to see Hannibal... er I mean, Anthony Hopkins saying stuff like that. His possession was really kind of basic, as far as possession movies go. It wasn't as creepy as Paranormal Activity or even as weird as the Exorcist. It was just kind of... blah. That and most of the best clips were already in the trailer.
Jackie: Yeah, it felt like his possession was just kind of a catalyst for Colin O'Donoghue's character, Michael Kovak. Besides that, Michael's story had a ton of loose ends, or I guess loose beginnings. He enters the seminary to get out of his home town but plans to leave once he graduates, except that he doesn't and instead, goes to Rome to become an exorcist and study under Hopkins' character. Also, his mother died when he was young, and we are led to believe that her death impacted him in a big way, but we don't know how she died.
Tyler: Right! I thought it was weird too that he decided to join the seminary for... no reason at
all. I think there was supposed to be some link between the mother and Michael joining the seminary but the story just didn't go explain that connection at all. Actually, Michael's story really didn't go anywhere.
Jackie: Yeah, he was just told to go here and do this, all in the interest of gaining some faith. He obviously ends up with some belief by the end of the film but I didn't feel that his journey matched the end. He really didn't have any character change.
Tyler: For me the thing that I kept thinking about while watching this movie was that there was nothing new about it. There are a bunch of movies that did it first and better, for example, Paranormal Activity or Constantine, or even The Exorcism of Emily Rose. Come on, that was a really creepy movie.
Jackie: Yeah, this just seemed like a vehicle for Anthony Hopkins to be creepy again. In fact, if he wasn't in this movie I probably wouldn't have wanted to see it.
Tyler: Yeah, I just really wanted this movie to be really awesome.
Jackie: Well, at least you have Thor to look forward to. I think Hopkins would play an ancient Greek space god pretty well.
Tyler: Oh yeah! Plus that eyepatch of his looks pretty bad ass.
