Gabriel (2007)

SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils movie Gabriel (2007)

Heaven and hell have game where they send seven archangels and seven fallen angels to city in purgatory. They are sent one by one and they take human form when they go. Goal is to kill all members of other team. There is always night in the city and most of the times it rains. Everything is decayed and dirty. Gabriel is seventh archangel to come to city. All six before him has been defeated or given up and gone hiding. Team fallen angels is leading. Archangels and fallen angels are not quite what you expect. There is no religious message here. Archangels and Fallen angels are both top fighters. Both sides don't hesitate to kill. Only difference is that Archangels want to help others and fallen angels take advantages of others. Not all archangels help others. Some of them has lost their will and become alcoholics or prostitutes working for fallen angels because they can't take being humans in the city.

Gabriel seeks other archangels. All of them have given up and try to hide from fallen angels. Gabriel tries to get them back into fight but only thing he does is showing their locations to fallen angels. Gabriel kills fallen angels one by one. When fallen angels found locations of archangels they kill them. When Gabriel found out that fallen angels have killed all other archangels he loses his mind and goes after them without hesitating killing everyone that stand in his way. Gabriel goes after leader of fallen angels after he has killed others. Then we find that he is actually archangel Michael. Didn't we have game where you had to kill other team to win. Now there are only two archangels left so shouldn't team archangels be the winners?

Unfortunately movie newer shows how victory is reclaimed. This would be important to know motivations of Michael. He doesn't seem to want the game end. He want to be free from heaven and hell. He changed sides because of that and now fights for his freedom. His freedom will end when game ends. Killing hiding archangels don't make much sense if your goal is to keep the game going on. It just brings game closer to end. Those archangels had given up the fight. They were no threat to him. Fallen angels knew who he was. This arrangement was ok for them. If victory needs to be reclaimed why he didn't kill Gabriel earlier. He wanted to Gabriel to join him. Why not talk to Gabriel earlier when other archangels were alive. He could continued to keep game on even if he had to kill Gabriel then because team archangels would have members left.

In the end Michael strikes pipe through Gabriel's chest, almost killing him. If Michael would have killed Gabriel which side would have won? Gabriel doesn't die. He hugs Michael so that pipe impale Michael too. When they both are dying Michael heals Gabriel. Gabriel want to understand why Michael changed side and why others ended up like they ended up. I don't understand how jumping off tall building to his death will help the understanding. For some reason that brings first rays of sunlight to city. I guess game has ended. Movie ended if nothing else ended.