There's been quite a few good films coming out of Australia in recent years, but this is sadly not one of them. I found about GABRIEL by looking at the filmography for the director Shane Abbess, after watching the trailer for his new film INFINI. Since INFINI looked pretty good (from the trailer, at least; it could end up being disappointing), I thought I should give this one a look see. Who knows? Maybe it could be decent? This movie fails on just about every level that matters. What it does get right, or at least makes it a little interesting, is extensive mythology it covers and a cool visual style. Unfortunately, those elements aren't terribly original and have been given better treatment in other films, like PRIEST (which still wasn't good), BLADE RUNNER and DARK CITY. The plot is kind of difficult to sum up, but I'll go ahead and try. Basically, Purgatory is the place where souls go after people die but haven't been judged yet (like in Catholicism). But in the film, there is a battle waged between Light and Dark that takes place in this realm, and currently Dark is winning. There's some rather complicated backstory at the beginning along with some narration, but I'd forgotten most of it in 15-20 minutes. That's how little I cared about what happened on screen. The worst part about it was how depressingly dull it was. Granted, this is a low-budget film, so I'm not ragging on it for that, but the color palette was too boring. The acting also wasn't great either. Although there was occasionally some moments where it felt emotionally honest/real, most of the time all of the actors talked in this ponderous manner that really didn't work at all. I suppose I should give credit where it's due, so for what it's worth the special effects weren't too bad for a low-budget film. Even the fight choreography and camera-work were pretty decent, although there were far too many closeups (again, probably to hide the budget). Despite the fact that they cribbed the visual aesthetic from a dozen other, better movies, this film doesn't completely discourage me from potentially seeing Shane Abbess' next film. GABRIEL is occasionally inventive, has more plot than it knows what to do with, but ultimately was just too boring to recommend.