Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Matho The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

SnoopyStyle Sister Marguerite is convinced that the events of the Revelation is occurring but her superiors would rather ignore it. An anonymous woman calls LA police detective Russell Logan (Lou Diamond Phillips) with a tip on a serial killer. His team catches serial killer Patrick Channing (Jeff Kober) who is eventually put to death. The mysterious woman had warned against the death penalty. Channing's spirit lives on and is killing Logan's team one at a time. Tess Seaton (Tracy Griffith) reveals herself to be the psychic who called him with the tips.This is filled with the leftovers of a supernatural serial killer thriller. It doesn't have much in the way of originality or surprises. The style is pretty bland and Lou Diamond Phillips is second rate as the action lead. Tracy Griffith is a pretty woman but not a great actress. The beginning is tied up with an uninvolving serial killer case. It would probably be better to leave most of it as flashbacks. It needs to get the movie to the cop and the psychic much faster. It does have some fun with a supernatural killer and the movie keeps me somewhat interested. If it commits more fully with the Jason-like killer, this could be a better horror and a more exciting thriller. The horror effects are more cheesy than scary. It does have one good sequence in the middle.

david-sarkies Before I go into an explanation of this movie, I will discuss the belief system behind this movie. Basically it comes from the ancient Persian religion of Xorastrianism. Some people still follow this religion (such as the late Freddy Mercury) and it is focused around two gods, a good god and an evil god. These two gods are of equal power and are at constant war with each other. Some people believe that Christianity evolved out of this religion, but it did not. More likely this religion evolved out of Judaism. The reason I say this is because Satan is nowhere near as powerful as God, and even though he has a immense amount of influence in this world, he cannot do anything without God's say so. Job 1&2 show us how Satan has to get God's permission to inflict suffering onto Job, and even then God tells Satan how much he is allowed to do. Has God go the right to do that? Well if we read the book of Job through we learn that through his suffering, Job is strengthened in his faith, and the blessings he receives at the end far outweighs anything that could have happened to him. Some say God is not powerful and is not in control because of the suffering that occurs in this world, but the truth is that a lot (but not all) of the world's suffering is because of us, humanity.Anyway, the theology behind the First Power is that God and Satan are of equal powers and give gifts to people to do their will. Satan's power in the world is growing but the church does not want to get involved. He has given a man, Channing, the power of possession. He is killing people in the city of Los Angeles in the form of a Pentegram, but a Psychic, Tess Seaton, can see it. A cop, Russell, is pursing Channing and captures him with the help of Tess, on the condition that he does not receive the death penalty. Russell ignores this and Channing is executed. Because of his power, Channing returns in spirit form and can possess people. If the body is killed then he can possess somebody else. He is practically immortal, and now he is after Russell and Tess.This movie is good as an action movie, but there are a lot of flaws in its logic. It claims that Channing is seeking the power of resurrection to gain immortality, but because he can possess people he does not need to be resurrected. He can gain fleshly pleasures where ever he goes anyway. It claims that Jesus has all three powers, but Jesus may have been able to tell the future and he rose from the dead, but he never possessed anybody. It also assumes that Jesus was a man blessed with powers by God, when Jesus was in fact God himself.The psychology of the film is interesting because Channing constantly plays with Russell and Tess. He is very powerful as is and gets into his victim's minds and twists what they see. He can alter what they see so even though he is possessing a body, he can alter what his victims see so they don't know who he is possessing at the time. What is really impressive about Channing is that way he constantly mocks and plays with his victims. He is not insane, he is just corrupt with power and he knows that he cannot be killed. And the people he possesses are practically dead anyway.Even though there are some flaws in the movie, I do like it. The ending leaves you wondering whether he is dead or not, as we know that he was killed before and he came back. Russell and Tess are forced to the edge of sanity and begin to wonder what is happening. Russell begins to question his faith again, while Tess finds herself unnerved and thrust into Russell's arms. At first they fight, but when Channing's power is fully realised, they realise that they need each other. Especially when Tess fortels Russel's death. This is a decent movie, it is a shame that it only appears on at midnight.

nomoons11 Well...I was kinda lookin forward to this one but by the end my attention was diverted away from the screen doin other things. When this happens...it's a stinker of a film.Where to start. Right off when you see the year of the film and Lou Diamond Phillips then you know this was his heyday of his starring in films. Not long after this he was relegated to worse B movies and straight to video status. He's not bad in this he's just the same as he always is. He's put in a movie with a really stupid script/concept.I think the part of this film that makes it not work is the concept itself. Basically what you get is a quasi Devil worshiper fella who has a nasty habit of killing whenever and to whoever he wants. LDP's character comes in and saves the day and then he diverts his attention to all his friends/co-workers to try and kill all of them. He meets up with a psychic who tags along throughout the entire film to a believability factor of "0".The funny part of this film is the editing. There are major stunt scenes in this where they switch the characters with stunt men but they don't even come close to makin it work. A scene were the killer busts out of the Gas Chamber and the character is suppose to break through the glass and they switch to the stuntman and he's taller and doesn't look remotely close to the guy playing the killer's role. They let the scene/camera role for so long you can clearly see that this isn't the same guy. There's a scene where the Devil/Killer does some martial arts super kick towards the end of the film. It's a laugh. How many Satan/Beelzebub/Lucifer characters in history do you know of who can do this stuff? LOL..There so many stunt scenes where it's plainly evident that it's s stuntman it's just sad. BTW...some of the stunts in this are just fantastic. It's the only reason to see this film.Bad Casting...Stupid script and terrible editing make for a waste of 90 minutes of your life. Take that time instead and watch Ishtar :D

mobile707 Obviously, a movie like First Power cannot be taken seriously on all levels. But if a viewer is willing to judge it on its own terms, I think there were a few strong scenes in its favor: 1. The scene-- near the beginning of the movie-- where the nun alerts the bishop of her concerns. I particularly enjoyed how the bishop tries to envision how the press will portray the Church if he goes public. One can sense that this man has been burned by the media before, and dreads having to say anything "weird" or "controversial" in front of the cameras.2. The scene where L.D.P. is in confession, and the priest morphs into someone else. The priest's response ("First, I must ask a question of my own") was very effective, and the fact that L.D.P. admits that he has fallen away from the Church shows that he is slowly realizing that he is confronted with something/someone that his own world-view (which is implicitly agnostic) cannot explain or understand.3. The scene where L.D.P. dreams of the execution in the gas chamber-- interesting because the audience thinks it's "real"...I disagree with the other reviewer who could not understand why the villain did not move on to "more important" stuff instead of toying with Phillips. I imagine that corrupting the cop's soul was at the very top of his agenda from the start.Anyway, 1st-Power is hardly a classic, but I thought it did stand out from the crowd of horror-thrillers.