MovieChat Forums > The Covenant (2006) Discussion > The story really falls apart about halfw...

The story really falls apart about halfway through...

posted 13 years ago by pwrof3willsetufree
7 replies | jump to latest

SPOILERS, OBVIOUSLY......

So, the first half of the film sets up Reid as the I don't follow the rules guy. He and Caleb have a falling out and it looks like Reid may be defecting from the team, so to speak.
However, once we find out about Chase, Reid is thrown into the background and all of a sudden is a team player. He also completely gives up on trying to get Sarah away from Caleb.

Also, the second half completely ignores everyone except Caleb and Chase and then the movie just becomes formulaic and loses the great concept of the story. The idea of a Covenant of power that has passed down through generations could open up some very intriguing doors. Unfortunately, this all just disappears and becomes a special effects fighting film.

Lastly, what was the point of Tyler? He did nothing the entire film!!

[–] WitheringSage 13 years ago

Truisms all around here.

Reid was just a red herring, and was always a team player but just didn't like Caleb being uptight is all. Then again, none of the characters were really expanded except for Chase and Caleb.

I was hoping that all the guys would come together in the end to defeat Chase. I mean four powers against Chase's two...come on now.

Oh well, I went and saw it because of the pretty faces.

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[–] familiartasteofpoison 12 years ago

IMO, I wouldn't say it falls apart but I do tend to turn it off around 3/4 through because I think the ending is boring and I cannot stand Sarah

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[–] MsGemini 12 years ago

So, the first half of the film sets up Reid as the I don't follow the rules guy. He and Caleb have a falling out and it looks like Reid may be defecting from the team, so to speak.
However, once we find out about Chase, Reid is thrown into the background and all of a sudden is a team player. He also completely gives up on trying to get Sarah away from Caleb.

Also, the second half completely ignores everyone except Caleb and Chase and then the movie just becomes formulaic and loses the great concept of the story. The idea of a Covenant of power that has passed down through generations could open up some very intriguing doors. Unfortunately, this all just disappears and becomes a special effects fighting film.

Lastly, what was the point of Tyler? He did nothing the entire film!!

I agree with everything you said. The beginning of the film set up a fascinating story, but about 1/4 of the way through it started going downhill for me. The whole Reid-is-rebelling-then-is-a-teamplayer was stupid. I didn't care for Sarah and Tyler served NO PURPOSE whatsoever. I wanted the film to expand on the other Covenant familes. I wanted to see how the other boys' fathers and grandfathers handled their powers. This film had the potential to be awesome... insead it was awful. I do wonder if Caleb using his powers to fix his windshield is foreshadowing Caleb's future misuse of his powers, but since we got very little character development we have no way of predicting how he will act in the future.

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[–] cliff_niblr031 11 years ago

You give the film WAY too much credit.

It falls apart the moment we learn that these guys have these amazing magical powers AND can't use them.

Why?

Well, you see, there's this magical caveat that causes any of the power users to burn out and age REALLY quickly.

Then what's the point of having those powers in the first place?

That's like a snake who can't use its venom on its prey because it will choke and die.

[–] Martha_Samara_Saxon 8 years ago

Most of them could have used expanding on. The only ones who were really focused on was Caleb and Chase.

Seriously, why would you want to learn more about the families? Expand on the characters that are front and center please. Why bother going into learning about their entire bloodline? I don't give a crap about Reid's grandfather-I want to know who Reid is. At most, all I care about learning about the families is how the Putnams ext all affected them. So if they aren't their families during the salem witch trials I don't care to know about them. I want to learn first about who Reid and Pogue and Tyler are an how or if their bloodline affected them. Does Tyler use his power rebelliously because he admires a relative from during the Salem Witch Trials who was the same way, for example? What else is there to Pogue besides being jealous of Chase? I'd like for to expand on the five boys before expanding on everyone and everything else.

Um-Caleb 'misuing' his powers in the end *was* character development. It's a major point throughout the movie. He doesn't want to use his powers and end up like his father, but the end after his fight with Chase he feels that he was in control of his powers and could handle using them without using control over himself like his father did. It was showing that he overcame that particular obstacle in his life.

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[–] Martha_Samara_Saxon 11 years ago

All of the guys besides Caleb didn't follow the rules. This is shown in the first two minutes we see them. Reid is just the worst about it. He isn't trying to get Sarah anymore or fighting with Caleb because they just found out about the fifth line of the covenant is alive and is trying to kill them. That's more important for him to worry about right then. Not getting to go out with Sarah was the least of his problems.

Yes, Caleb and Reid were rivals but ultimately they were like brothers. They grew up with each other and always had each other's backs. Caleb just ignores this at the beginning because his own fears are overshadowing all the logic. The closer they get to ascending the more he thinks the worst of his friends when they use their powers. Who could blame him? He just doesn't want them to go the same way as his father.

I do agree with your second paragraph. As much as I love that it focuses on Caleb and Chase, they should have included more of the rest of the covenant. This movie is about their covenant, not just Caleb, despite that he is the main character. Oh, the special effects fight was boring as hell. I loved most of Chase's lines to intimidate Caleb but mostly that fight scene have to fast forward through every time I watch this because it's just so boring. Then again I'm not a big action fan.

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[–] Martha_Samara_Saxon 8 years ago

I agree about Reid. Then again you got to remember Reid wasn't Chase 2.0, he was part of the covenant and their friend, but was sick of Caleb being so controlling and telling them off anytime they used their power, which made him want to use it more to rebel. Still, they should have kept that up with Reid to an extent. I didn't like how it was just completely forgotten about. Then again they had much more pressing issues to worry about like a member of the covenant line reappearing and trying to kill everyone, so I guess Caleb was more worried about that and Reid was more worry about that instead of trying to get with Sarah. Maybe if they had a sequel this would have been expanded on.

I can understand both sides. The writers wanted to focus on the more pressing matters but I feel they should have expanded on the Reid disobeying Caleb's orders. How about for one-showing up to save Caleb instead of him and Tyler just waiting around at the dance together? Just for starters...

But to be fair, Reid was ALWAYS their friend since they were kids. They grew up together. Of course he was going to care about Caleb and Pogue and be a team player. Notice the shift-that when they think Reid is the one using powers they think this is just another act of rebellion and he's heading towards going too far and they are trying to stop it before it starts. But with Chase-this is some guy that they don't know/wasn't a part of their group who they obviously don't know well. They didn't know how far he'd take it and he was dangerous-pretending to be a friend and getting close to them before trying to steal peoples power.

Reid and Chase weren't the same level of 'bad guy', nor did they have the same story/background. It makes sense that Reid wouldn't continue to be a dick to Caleb when his friend was abut to die and Caleb's life was at risk as well and he knew flirting with Sarah wasn't the right time when all this was going on. It does actually make sense. But Reid was always a good guy who just used powers for fun. That doesn't make him evil. Reid cared about his friends who he grew up with, he just used power for stupid stuff to rebel against Caleb. Chase was a different story. His wasn't playful like Reid's was. He liked to use his powers for bad and didn't care about the welfare of the rest of the covenant. He only cared about himself.

However, the one thing that didn't fit well with the character was that he obeyed Caleb's orders in the end. What's the point of being the rebellious one if he wasn't going to disobey Caleb and try to go to Putnam barn to save him?

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Right, not pompous at all then.