Monster Ark on Sci-Fi Channel

Where do I start with this? I watched the movie Monster Ark on the Sci-Fi Channel. It sounded a little better than it ended up. It was OK but it could be considered a modern B-Movie about ancient history and archaeology ala Raiders of the Lost Ark. One of the selling features is it stars Renée O'Connor of Xena: Warrior Princess fame (she will join her Hercules/ Xena co-stars in an up coming movie for next year called Bitch Slap)


WARNING: This Review contains Spoilers!

OK in a nutshell after discovering an ancient Biblical scroll (which turns out to be the "Original" copy of the book of Genesis) in the same area the Dead Sea Scrolls were found an archaeology professor teams up with his ex-wife (O'Connor) to find Noah's First Ark that's right according to the text before the famous flood adventure Noah was sent on a mission from God. This first ark of Noah's was to transport and destroy (or eternally imprison) an evil creature. Well guess what? These archaeology folks unleash this evil creature back into the world, and have to track it down.

I thought Renée O'Connor was OK in this, but I don't think she really fit the part. At first I thought it should have been played by a slightly older actress. She is mid to late 30s and I thought the character should have been late 40s.


This film would have been a little better if they had cut out some blatant Raiders of the Lost Ark ideas. I won't give the exact details but what do the words: Map Room/ use a staff to find hidden room, topple a giant statue to knock a hole in a wall and crate up an ancient power source and put into storage, make you think of?

To make the young guys drool the movie also has Amanda Crew in it as one of the professor's graduate students. Normally I wouldn't mind what she was wearing, usually shorts and a t-shirt or sleeveless shirt, however, in many of the areas of the world where they were supposed to be - Iraq for one - she was dressed way to skimpy.


Even with ripping off Raiders I liked this film. It was OK, but it is a B-Grade film. You also have to do some big suspending of your disbelief, even though the film is a little preachy about personal beliefs. Things like being able to just up and go to the next area you want from an ancient map, even within areas of Iraq the US military has problems patrolling, deciphering an ancient text that is slightly different from previous similar documets, being able to decipher more of the document overnight when it took 3 weeks to figure out only about 1/2 of it previously, being escorted by a military detachment and being able to tell the commanding officer "lets go here" with no problems,

I give it 3 out of 5 stars.

NOTE: The Renée O'Connor pics are from Xena: Warrior Princess episodes. Yes the Indiana Jones like one too. Oh The Amanda Crew pic? That came from IMDB.com.