Why it's so difficult to bring these films to any kind of final state is beyond me. Exorcist: The Beginning muddies the waters even more, as it now exists as two similar but entirely different films (the other being Paul Schrader's shelved original cut, ultimately released theatrically as Dominion). The Beginning is Renny Harlin's re-shoot of the aborted Schrader movie, which some folks instantly believe to be superior without even seeing it, since it's always favorable to root for the underdog. I haven't seen Dominion, and sort of hope it does well what The Beginning doesn't. Chances are, it actually has as many flaws, though probably different ones. So, unfortunately, the scientific approach requires sitting through two not-great movies as a means of constructing one excellent non-existent third version in your imagination. The Beginning is by no means horrible, and for the most part is pretty good, but it's more of a "surprisingly pretty good" than a "pretty damn good." Stellan Skarsgård plays Father Merrin (in both versions, incidentally), the Max von Sydow character from the original Exorcist. The year is 1949, and we meet Merrin as a shell-shocked and drunken ex-priest haunted by gut-wrenching memories of what he witnessed during the Holocaust. Now an archaeologist, he accepts an offer from a shadowy gentleman who wants him to retrieve an ancient religious artifact from a mysterious church recently discovered in deep, dark Africa. Like the original, the film takes its time getting things going, so for the first hour or so, you're given only enough vague mystery to keep you hooked in at the most minimal level. But as the plot finally takes shape, its ideas prove to be well worth enduring the tedium. As a prequel, it's totally successful in setting the stage for a familiar story, twisting it enough so you can't guess the outcome, and delivering the expected payoff without forcing it. As a film overall, however, The Beginning has plenty of raggedy moments. A scene wherein a young black boy is torn asunder (which I normally love to see in any movie) is marred by some fairly hilarious CG hyenas. And while Skarsgård is (as usual) quite commanding, he's given a few silly things to do that pretty much any actor would execute unconvincingly. No big scares, but for the most part I enjoyed this, if for nothing else, that it wasn't nearly as terrible as it seemed certain to be, and even managed to leave a lingering impression. The impression is philosophically provocative rather than visceral, but come on, you can't have expected the whole projective-vomit thing again.
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